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Commercial |
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Trash Metering has proven to be an important component of some of the nation’s most successful commercial and industrial recycling programs. Similar to residential Trash Metering systems, commercial Trash Metering works just like a utility - the more garbage you put out, the more you pay.
Some communities require businesses (in some cases, only small and medium businesses) to purchase official Trash Metering bags for solid waste collection. Recyclables are collected at no cost to the commercial entity.
The recycling component acts as an incentive, allowing businesses to divert as much of their garbage as they can into recycling so they can control how much they put out for disposal — and, therefore, how much they spend.
The control opportunity is that businesses have to pay for each bag of discarded trash. The businesses make the decision about how much garbage they put in their bags and whether or not they recycle.
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About Trash Metering |
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| Trash Metering systems, also known as pay-as-you-throw, user pay, unit-based pricing, and SMART (Save Money and Reduce Trash), charge households a rate based on how much waste they present for collection. Variations of this simple concept – akin to paying a water or electricity bill – have been embraced by about 7,100 municipalities in the United States, and have led to the diversion of some 6.5 million tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) per year that would otherwise have been landfilled or incinerated. Trash Metering programs are available to about 25% of the US population and about 26% of communities in the US – including 30% of the largest cities in the US. |
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Environmental Impact |
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| In more than 300 communities nationwide, the WasteZero System has dramatically impacted residential waste diversion. A 2008 analysis of all WasteZero communities found that the WasteZero System decreased residential MSW by an average 43 percent in weight. A recent study by the US EPA of all Trash Metering municipalities shows that about one-third of diverted waste is diverted directly to recycling, about one-third is diverted to composting, and one-third is “source reduced” (buying in bulk, reduced packaging, etc.). |
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