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What Our Customers Say About the WasteZero System |
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Local officials in our more than 300 WasteZero communities discuss the benefits of implementing the WasteZero System, including the remarkable impact the program has had on their citizens, the local environment, and the fiscal health of their cities.
"The implementation of this program has already exceeded our expectations."
Rose LoPiccolo, Recycling Coordinator, Gloucester, MA (link)
"Those numbers are reflecting the [WasteZero] program being an overwhelming success."
Jim Bouley, Mayor, Concord, NH (link)
"I am proud to say that our trash disposal is down 49 percent on average and our recycling is up 69 percent on average over the 5 months that [WasteZero] PAYT has been in place in Malden."
Charles Toomajian, Deputy Mayor, Malden, MA (link)
"I was following Middletown as they implemented a [WasteZero] pay-as-you-throw program, and I watched with amazement that the people were so receptive and so delighted to recycle that their recycling rates went from dismal to the highest in the state."
Teresa Paiva Weed, Majority Leader, Rhode Island State Senate (link)
"WasteZero presents [a] golden opportunity to take recycling into [the] new millennium now."
Joel Tyner, Legislator, Dutchess County, NY (link)
"The streets are cleaner, people's recycling is better."
Kathy Middleton, Recycling Coordinator, Gloucester, MA (link)
"Recycling is off the charts..We all have broken arms from repeatedly trying to pat ourselves on the back for our wisdom in starting [WasteZero] Pay as You Throw!"
Wayne Melville, Town Administrator, Manchester by-the-Sea, personal communication, Oct. 6, 2009
"As you can see, our recycling has about doubled in the first two months of [WasteZero] pay-as-you-throw, which we started on Oct. 1, 2007..For October & November 2006, we collected 481 tons of trash curbside. That works out to 12.34 ton per day. For October & November 2007, we collected 182 tons of trash curbside. That works out to 5.2 tons per day. So year to year for the same 2 month period, pre- and post- pay-as-you-throw, we have seen a 58% drop in tonnage. If that's not a sales pitch for pay per bag and single stream recycling, I don't know what is."
Lee Leiner, Deputy Director Public Works, City of Bath, Maine, personal communication, September 18, 2009
"[There are] less bags on the curb and more items in the recycling."
Richard Howard, Mayor, Malden, MA (link)
"It is amazing the way citizens have responded to recycling."
Paul Condon, City Councilor, Malden, MA (link)
"The first month of [WasteZero] Pay-As-You-Throw has been an unqualified success. Both the increase in recycling and decrease in trash have exceeded our projections. Our citizens seem to be accepting and supportive of this new system of waste management, and that's the most important thing."
Mark Green, Town Manager, Sanford, Maine (link)
"Placing an economic value on something at the curb definitely changes behavior. In the first full year of [WasteZero] PAYT, the town generated 25% less overall material [i.e., waste and recycling combined]. People consciously purchase differently. I know I do."
Daniel Morgado, Town Manager, Shrewsbury, MA (link)
"I think PAYT is one of the best things we've done."
Paul DiPietro, City Council President, Malden, MA (link)
"I think [WasteZero is] the best program."
Jack Carney, Public Works Director, Pawtucket, RI (link)
"[Having implemented the WasteZero PAYT system], the results in Malden are staggering. Based on the five month trend, Malden residents anticipate cutting their waste disposal costs in half in 2009 with the new PAYT system. Malden residents not only learned to recycle but also learned to think twice about everything they throw away from old tennis shoes to packing peanuts. The political challenge of unit-based pricing may seem difficult on the surface but 50 percent diversion means 50 percent savings to the municipality. If a community pays 50 percent less for disposal, that's a result worth the effort."
U.S. EPA (link)
"Gloucester's [WasteZero] Pay-As-You-Throw trash system, purple "Barney bags" and all, seems to be achieving the desired results: People are throwing less, and paying less while recycling more. That is the case on both the individual and community level. Public Works Director Michael Hale reports that during the first two months of the new system, recycling collections increased 13 percent, while trash collection dropped 29 percent. That sounds like a win for local families, who pay for trash based on the number of purple bags they fill. It is also a win for the city, which pays a per-ton fee for trash hauled to the incinerator. And it is a win for the environment, since more trash is being recycled while less is being burned."
Editorial, Gloucester (MA) Daily Times (link)
"Maybe it's the wallet talking or maybe the switch raised everyone's awareness but the move by Marshfield to [WasteZero] Pay-As-You-Throw trash program has had a remarkable effect on the town's budget and the environment."
Debbie Sullivan, Recycling Coordinator, Marshfield, MA (link)
"Where the savings [from the WasteZero System] really show up is in manpower. We used to send three trucks three days a week, each with a driver and two pickers. We now send two trucks with one driver and one picker. The expenses also go down. We're running less equipment so our fuel costs go down and our maintenance costs go down."
David Hickox, Public Works Director, Dartmouth, MA (link)
"[With WasteZero Trash Metering,] the town [of Shrewsbury, MA] reduced the amount of trash taken to the waste to energy facility by over 40 percent and realized a 34 percent (commodity only) recycling rate....The town avoided over $260,000 in disposal fees, equaling about $26 per household."
U.S. EPA (link)
"When you're paying $89.50 a ton for trash removal, recycling translates into big savings,'' said Peter Buttkus, public works director in Duxbury (MA), where recycling rates surged after the town started [WasteZero Trash Metering,] charging a per-bag fee for trash collection and collecting unsorted recyclables, known as single-stream recycling. With persuasion falling short, communities are increasingly adopting policies designed to motivate recalcitrant recyclers. Like Duxbury, many have adopted "pay-as-you-throw'' programs, giving residents a cash incentive to cull cans and cardboard from the trash and put them in recycling bins, which are emptied for free. These programs consistently raise recycling rates, local and state officials say. "We saw a huge spike,'' Buttkus said. "Now people are extremely mindful of it."
Boston Globe (link)
"Selectman John Kennan said he recently spoke with a town official from Dartmouth who had 'wonderful things [sic] about Waste Zero.' [Kennan said,] 'the addition of this type of a program shows that people do recycle more. There is less waste disposed in the woods contrary to what people think.'"
Sandwich (MA) Broadsider (link)
"In Malden, where [WasteZero] PAYT was implemented in October 2008, trash disposal is down 50 percent on average and recycling is up 69 percent, over the previous year. The city recently announced savings of $2.5 million through a combination of reduced trash disposal costs ($801,723) due to increased recycling and revenue generated from user fees ($1.7 million). These savings helped avert a cut in municipal services and personnel. Since [WasteZero] PAYT was implemented last fall, Malden has increased its recycling tonnage by 75 percent compared to the previous year."
Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (link)
"In Shrewsbury, the town completed its first year with [WasteZero] PAYT and reports that on average, per household trash has gone from 2,206 pounds per year to 1,356 pounds per year. Shrewsbury's results in recycling tonnage are equally impressive: over the last four years, the community averaged about 540 tons of recycling per year, and after [WasteZero] PAYT was adopted, that amount jumped to about 620 tons in the first year. The city's recycling rate has gone from 22 to 35 percent in one year."
Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (link)
"The overseers of the city's [WasteZero] pay-as-you-throw trash program say they expected it to cut back on garbage. What they didn't predict was how quickly that would happen..General Services Director Chip Chesley said trash volumes declined more sharply than the city expected under the program, which began last July. 'The community response changed much faster than we thought it was going to change,' Chesley said. During the first quarter of the fiscal year, the city took half as much trash to the incinerator as it did during the same period the year before..Chesley has attributed those declines in part to recycling rates, which rose dramatically in the first quarter - 75 percent over the same period last year - and have remained high."
Concord (NH) Monitor (link)
"Concord, NH, saw its solid waste volume decrease nearly 50 percent and recycling increase 75 percent within three months of implementing [WasteZero] PAYT -- to the tune of a $528,000 savings per year in reduced disposal costs for the city."
Huffington Post (link)
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Trash Metering |
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| Trash Metering - an alternative to the traditional flat fee approach - simply charges households for waste collection and disposal services based on the number of trash bags collected. Trash Metering provides residents with a direct price incentive to reduce their production of solid waste. As a result, recycling programs in cities with Trash Metering consistently have significantly higher participation levels and higher recycling rates in comparison to cities without Trash Metering.
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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 2010 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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