BRATTLEBORO — Your neighbors don't help you pay for your gasoline, heating oil, or your food. Nor do you help pay for theirs. You pay for it yourself.
Whether you own a gas guzzler or a hybrid, how many miles you drive determines how much you spend on gas. Where you set your thermostat affects how much you spend on heating oil. Your eating habits affect how much you spend on food.
Starting in spring of 2015, your neighbors will no longer share the cost of your trash removal through their property taxes, as they do now. The cost of picking up curbside trash and its disposal fees will be paid by each household. Pay-as-you-throw (PAYT) is coming to Brattleboro - again!
In 2010, the Selectboard and Town Meeting representatives passed PAYT, but a petition was circulated for a town-wide vote, and the citizens of Brattleboro overturned the measure.
In the intervening four years, a lot has happened.
Brattleboro has made a concerted effort to increase the recycling rate and instituted a curbside compost collection program.
The Vermont Legislature passed Act 148, the Universal Recycling Law, which mandates that municipalities “implement a variable rate pricing system [also known as unit-based pricing, or pay-as-you-throw] that charges for the collection of municipal solid waste from a residential customer for disposal based on the volume or weight of the waste collected.”
This requirement must be met by July 1, 2015. This time around, Brattleboro citizens have no choice. There will be no town-wide vote on PAYT.
* * *
PAYT systems extend the life of landfills, decrease air pollution from trash incinerators, and reduce the need for new disposal facilities. As communities turn to reuse, recycling, and composting, shared natural resources, such as land, air, and water, are protected and preserved.
Many towns in Massachusetts have had PAYT trash systems for years. Vernon just instituted PAYT on July 1 and has dramatically reduced the amount of trash picked up curbside.
Other Vermont towns have reported similar results.
Newark's pay-as-you-throw system has cut the amount of trash disposed in half: 33.39 tons for the fourth quarter of 2012 to 14.4 tons for the fourth quarter of 2013.
Canaan Selectboard member Gregory Noyes said of the town's recent PAYT switch: “This is the only system that rewards individuals for their efforts to reduce their costs by recycling and composting.”
Putting out one small bag of trash or several large bags each week will make a big difference on what a household pays for trash.
* * *
This does not need to be a financial burden to households. More than 800 people in Brattleboro are putting out their food scraps and low-grade and soiled paper into their curbside compost carts in addition to their recyclables. They know from experience how little, both in weight and volume, is left to put in the trash bag.
A four-person PAYT Committee appointed by the Selectboard, along with me and Interim Town Manager Patrick Moreland, meets every other Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. in the Municipal Center to develop the program.
Right now, the committee is looking at nearby towns in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts that have a PAYT program. The goal is to learn from them what works and what does not, so the town can make informed decisions as it develops Brattleboro's program.
We need to decide whether the PAYT proxy will be bags or adhesive bands/stickers, what the cost will be, and where they will be made available for residents to purchase.
Most towns with PAYT have two sizes of bags available: 30 to 33 gallon, and 13 to 15 gallon. The fee charged for the larger bag varies from town to town; some cost as littel as $2 or under and some as high as $4.25.
The committee will report to the Selectboard every two months and will undertake an extensive education effort via town-wide mailings and informational meetings as the start of the program nears.