The Solid Waste and Recycling Advisory Committee was established on December 4th, 2000. The committee works with the Highway Department in developing a program for solid waste and recycling collection services through 2005. In 2002, the Selectmen asked the committee to focus on investigating Pay as You Throw (PAYT) as an alternate way of handling solid waste collection.
In the spring of 2002, the committee met with a member of Lexington’s PAYT Committee to discuss their experience with PAYT. Questions were raised about why they switched to PAYT, how did they implement their program and what were their results with the program. The Lexington PAYT Committee member recommended a one to one and a half year time frame to start a program. They also suggested that PAYT should only cover one third of the cost for solid waste collection and disposal. Lexington also applied for and received a grant from the State’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to fund a recycling coordinator for two years. They strongly recommended that we investigate the Town bylaws to see if there was any language mandating “free” trash pickup. Lexington’s PAYT
program was later rescinded because of the language in their bylaw. The Committee did confirm that there is no Town By-Law requiring free solid waste collection.
Members of the Committee also attended several PAYT workshops run by DEP. It gave Committee members a chance to ask questions and meet with members of other Solid Waste and Recycling Committees from around the State. The Committee learned that one difficulty with evaluating PAYT is the problem of estimating how much to charge per bag and estimating how many bags households would need in order to achieve a particular budgeted income. One recommendation used a conservative estimate of 30 pounds per bag, with that number divided by total solid waste tonnage in order to calculate the number of bags used per year. The Committee received a spreadsheet to help with PAYT calculations and preliminary work was done to make some estimates. In other research the Committee discovered that with a PAYT program, the amount of solid waste
collected typically decreases, while the amount of recycled material increases. One side effect is that recycling collection costs may increase with a PAYT program, if the recycling trucks fill up sooner. The hauler may have to use more recycling trucks, or the Town may have to change the routes to help adjust the loads.
In the summer the Committee applied to DEP for a Municipal Recycling Grant that would focus on completing a cost-benefit analysis of PAYT. A grant was awarded in December that provides up to 60 hours of dedicated personnel time, valued at $1,800, which will be available between January and June 2003.
Other Committee work completed in 2002 included adding button battery receptacles in local stores, and airing a recycling Public service video on cable TV. This video was given to the Town by the State. The Committee continues to publish a weekly recycling tip of the week in the Belmont Citizen Herald. In the spring, the Highway Department received a DEP grant for 500 free recycling bins. The bins sell for half price with the proceeds used to buy more bins. Members of the Committee helped sell compost bins during Town Day. The Highway Department also received new recycling educational material from the DEP. Committee members distributed some of this material to residents at the summer Payson Park concert series. Finally, the Committee worked on a recycling manual for the Town. This manual will be
available to residents in 2003 on the Town’s web site with hard copies available at the Highway Department.
In 2003, the Committee will work with the DEP consultant on the PAYT cost-benefit analysis and will present the results of that work to the Board of Selectmen.
Respectfully submitted,
Ken Siskind, Chair
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