Recycling up as towns use a carrot and a stick
Years ago, towns launching a recycling initiative would make fliers, offer free bins, and give educational seminars.
Today, as the cost of trash has gone up and the value of recyclables has followed, officials are resorting to threatening their constituents' wallets if they do not recycle -- and it is working.
"The way to get people to comply, as sad as it sounds, is to hit them in the pocket," said Debbie Sullivan, the recycling coordinator and enforcement officer for Marshfield.
In just the first weeks of its pay-as-you-throw program, Marshfield has a 95 compliance rate, whereas only about 25 percent of residents recycled last year.
Pay-as-you-throw, promoted by the state and adopted by 120 towns so far, does away with a flat fee for trash removal and instead charges for each additional trash bag over the first, so that homeowners and businesses are encouraged to recycle.
In Marshfield, residents are entitled to one 36-gallon barrel not to exceed 50 pounds. For the rest of their trash, they have to buy special bags at $2 apiece.
"This will save money," Sullivan said, noting that the town adopted the program after it was faced with pushing its flat trash removal rate from $365 a year to over $400 per house and business. "Trash is $80 a ton. If that [amount of trash] goes down and our recycling goes up, we're only in a win/win situation."
And the extra charge is a more equitable way to assess trash fees, most say.
"If you live alone and put out one bag but the neighbor across the street has six kids and six barrels of trash, why should you be paying the same amount?" asked Sullivan.
The state Department of Environmental Protection estimates the average recycling rate in Massachusetts to be about 48 percent. Communities that have not adopted pay-as-you-throw programs average about a 23 percent participation rate, and those that have adopted such programs have about a 37 percent rate, according to DEP spokesman Ed Coletta.
The DEP encourages communities to adopt the programs by offering grant writing assistance, technical help, and a few thousand dollars of start-up money. The department is now sending mayors and boards of selectmen declarations to sign that would promote greater recycling of paper, which has gone up in value and is the largest recycling category for most homes, according to Claire Sullivan, executive director of the South Shore Recycling Cooperative.
In an informal survey of several towns south of Boston, it is clear that the pay-as-you-throw models have resulted in higher recycling rates, without making the practice mandatory. By the end of last year, nearly a dozen area towns used the model.
Brockton adopted its program six years ago and immediately saw a 30 percent reduction in trash and a 300 percent increase in recycling, said Patrick Sullivan, contract administrator for the Department of Public Works.
Before the program was adopted, Brockton homeowners and businesses paid a flat $220 a year for trash removal. Today, they pay $280 a year to put out one bag of garbage per week. Additional bags cost $1 each. Recycling is not mandatory, but 90 percent of those on the city contract recycle, Sullivan said.
"It has kept our trash bill from increasing," said Sullivan, who also promotes recycling in the elementary schools. "We haven't had to look for an increase in fees. The less money you spend on trash, the more you have to spend on other things."
Other communities haven't adopted the programs, but say they may. In Sharon, where so much of the town is preserved open space, the recycling rate is well below the state average at 25 percent, said Public Works Director Eric Hooper. The town just increased the kinds of plastics it can recycle in hopes that residents already committed to the practice will pull more out of the trash stream. The town charges a flat fee of $60 a quarter for trash removal regardless of amount.
Hooper said the town may need to wait three years to implement a variation of the pay-as-you-throw program when its trash removal contract is up for renewal.
"There is an economic incentive to recycle," Hooper said. "You have to make it cost more to not recycle. That is just the way things are. By making people have to pay the piper, it's a big difference."
In Abington, officials made recycling mandatory in 1998, but there was no enforcement. The rule was that a recycling bin had to be placed outside with the trash or the hauler would not remove it. The problem with that, says Health Agent Michelle Roberts, is that nothing was required to be in the recycling bin.
Abington's recycling rate has been about 25 percent of households, Roberts estimated.
"A lot of people put out an empty bin," she said. "They just refuse to recycle. I don't have any enforcement time. It's too bad."
Roberts said that she has suggested to the Board of Health that the community adopt a pay-as-you-throw system, but that it rejected the idea as constituting another fee.
Pat Rooney, a new 30-year-old father, lives in Marshfield, but is more comfortable with the Abington approach.
"As far as the recycling itself, I have no problem," he said. "I understand it's great for the environment. Where I do have a problem is that they start enforcing it and penalize people who choose not to. It is not a state law that says you are required to recycle." 