Montville's Solid Waste Group Hears About a Trash Plan that Works

Tom Phetteplace, the director of solid waste in Stonington, told the Public Works/Solid Waste Subcommittee that the pay-by-the-bag program that his town uses has reduced waste by 50 percent, and increased recycling dramatically.

Here’s how the program works: Residents buy yellow Stonington trash bags at town Hall or at their local stores. The bags have different prices, depending on their sizes. A 33-gallon bag costs $1.25,or $6.25 for  a package of five. A 15-gallon bag is 75 cents.

You put your solid waste in the bags, and the town picks it up curbside for free, or you bring it to the transfer station and leave it at no cost.

Haulers will not accept trash that’s not in the yellow bags.

Recycling is taken for free and accepted for free at the transfer station.

Phetteplace said that Stonington adopted the program in 1992, when it began to bring its trash to Preston. The program was designed to pay for the Preston tipping fee. It was designed as well to increase awareness about recycling, and to keep Stonington taxes from going up.

The town has a similar program for commercial waste. It charges by the size of the Dumpster and the number of pickups required.

“Anybody who has equal trash has equal payment,” Phetteplace said.

The volume program is being used widely in Massachusetts, he said, and in Connecticut, “It’s certainly come to the forefront of what the state wants to do for solid waste,” he said, “for the simple reason that it works.”

Stonington has saved $4.8 million in costs since the program began in 1992; the program pays for 99 percent of the total cost of trash removal in town, Phetteplace said.

The program makes sense on a number of levels, he told the subcommittee. It operates on the same idea as your electric bill. The more you use, the more you pay.

“If there was no connection between the pocketbook and the use, you’d leave your lights on all the time. Trash is the same way.”

Stonington also helps residents develop ways to minimize their trash output. A brochure he brought gives residents ideas about how to compost, how to build a composting bin, and where to buy composting bins at reduced rates.

It also gives a clear list of what materials may be recycled, and ways to reduce the amount of trash you produce.

Dana McFee, council liaison, said that for him, the financial incentive of a program like this is clear.

“They do it the right way, you cut your costs in half,” he said. That financial incentive to me is about $150 a year.”

“Every resident has to use yellow bag for solid waste,” Phetteplace said. “The purpose is for residents to pay for what they generate. If you don’t want to recycle, you’re going to pay more. If you don’t shop wisely, you pay more.”