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GRAFTON, Mass.—The pay-as-you-throw trash program has reduced the town’s disposal costs by over $135,000 compared to when the PAYT program started three years ago, Assistant Town Administrator Kevin Mizikar reported to Selectmen Tuesday.
“This has significantly offset our tax increases,” Mizikar said. “This is helpful because we have seen large increases in other areas, like health care costs.”
In 2009, tipping fees to haul resident trash was $357,178; in fiscal year 2012, the cost was $220,436. Grafton residents reduced their trash hauling fees by 41 percent, from 5,169 tons in 2009 to 3,041 tons in 2012.
In addition, resident recycling efforts have nearly doubled, from 888 tons in 2009 to 1,744 tons in 2012.
“Switching from 18- gallon recycling bins to the larger 36 and 96-gallon bins meant that people would recycle more,” Mizikar said.
When Selectman Peter Adams asked if the town administrator would consider dropping the cost of the bags, the answer was that the revenue generated from the PAYT sales does not cover the town’s entire annual hauling costs of $520,000, which includes fees outside of the PAYT program.
“The good news is that there are no plans to to increase trash bag fees,” said Town Administrator Tim McInerney.
McInerney said the next goal is to figure out how to improve recycling efforts in municipal buildings and schools. This would not only include education programs and well placed recycling bins, but also to figure out how many tons of trash is generated per year, which they have had trouble getting an accurate number from E.L. Harvey, the contracted trash collector.
Comments (7)
The net cost to town residents has NOT gone down. All that happened was that bag fees replaced a potential tax increase.
I wonder when we will move to a total fee for service model: separate fees for Fire Department, Police, schools. Hmmm...not a bad idea, eh?
It is good that we are recycling more. Is it time to close that recycling center?
It is fascinating that we need to identify better recycling activities for the Muni Center and schools. Why? Shouldn't they be leading this activity?
Selectman Brook Padget was adamant about PAYT when the option first materialized. I was adamant against it. It is now quite apparant that I was wrong. When I'm wrong I have no trouble in being accountable for my own statements. This is one of those times.
Can we at least get weekly recycling? I have 2 of the big barrels and STILL, by halfway through the second week, they're full. I find myself throwing away some recyclables, because they won't fit in the barrels.
There is no free ride - getting rid of trash and recycling does cost, and yes, going the way of PAYT bags does put that some of that financial burden back on the people in town. Those who produce more trash pay more by having to buy more bags, so it does encourage recycling, which we do not have to pay for, but ultimately does help in keeping the overall bill for trash removal down.
I personally use the large bags. I use them to collect all the normal regular kitchen bags I use, and usually I am only putting out 1 large bag of trash a week on average.
The cost of bags is 75 cents for the small, and $1.50 for the large. Is this really a lot of money to spend on trash bags? Unless you are using the small bags like regular kitchen bags, I fail to see how this is a lot of money to be spending. Having had to previously pay out for private trash removal, this is far less than what one would have to pay out for private trash pick up. Noone is holding a gun to your head telling you that you have to use the town contracted trash and recycling service. You are certainly free to source out your own private trash service, and pay whatever it would cost to go that route.
No problem with anything you have said - however - how much has been spent on getting rid of trash? It's certainly more than the stated amount in this article - how many bags have been sold? How much volume of trash has been collected? Are we paying more or less per ton this year compared to past years? I love recycling, and I would bet I'm cheaper (sorry, fiscally cautious) than you - I have one small bag per week! It is still not accurate to tell me it costs soooo much less - without taking into account the $$$ amount of bags sold. I guess I will go into the math:
population=16000 to 18000 people, maybe 5000 householdsx $2.25 (1big, 1 small) = $11,250 per week x 52 weeks = $585,000 in bag sales. Don't forget to add to this the taxes associated with this service.
"Is this really a lot of money to spend on trash bags?" - you tell me
Again, check the archives - I'm not doing the math for everyone again - This is one of the more deceptive 'news' stories that's been published. If the blinders were taken off the sheeple, we would all notice that while the town has decreased costs due to recycling, the townspeople have increased their costs due to paying for bags - is this really a decrease? The actual total cost to the taxpayer would be the cost of the program, plus the cost of the bags.
and the best line is "This has significantly offset our tax increases" - allow me to translate - we're still raising taxes, but we're not raising them as much as we were going to - sweet!
This would be even better if the residents could see and feel the effects of this by having a bit of a reduction in the PAYT bags. The program was put in place because of the lack of recycling and the high cost of trash removal, now that residents are following the model the bags should come down a bit.