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About Trash Metering |
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Trash Metering systems, also known as pay-as-you-throw (PAYT), 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.
Trash Metering has been recognized as the leading solution to both environmental and fiscal exigencies by a rapidly growing number of US municipalities, resulting in a 40 percent growth in programs since 2000. Municipalities have turned to Trash Metering programs because
- The programs are economically sustainable. Trash Metering is an effective tool for communities struggling to cope with soaring municipal solid waste management expenses. Well-designed programs generate the revenues communities need to cover their solid waste costs, including the costs of such complementary programs as recycling and composting. Residents benefit, too, because they have the opportunity to take control of their trash bills.
- The programs have a huge impact on diversion. The WasteZero System reduces residential disposal by about 43% -- usually with little or no administrative costs.
- The programs are highly equitable. One of the most important advantages of a Trash Metering program is its inherent fairness. When the cost of managing trash is hidden in taxes or charged at a flat rate, residents who recycle and prevent waste subsidize their neighbors' wastefulness. Under Trash Metering, residents pay only for what they throw away.
- The programs are flexible and quick to implement. Trash Metering programs such as the WasteZero System are in place in large communities, but also in very small ones and everything in-between and have been implemented in as few as three months if there is political will behind the program.
- The programs have an advantage over simply implementing recycling programs because Trash Metering encourages not only recycling, but also composting, source reduction, reuse, and the host of responsible methods of dealing with waste.
State and local officials have long marveled over both the environmental and financial thrust of a successful Trash Metering program. Connecticut DEP Commissioner Gina McCarthy, for example, says that if every town in Connecticut switched to Trash Metering and achieved an average 40 percent diversion rate, "then Connecticut would eliminate an estimated 595,000 MTCE (Million Ton of Carbon Equivalent) from the atmosphere - the equivalent of taking 446,250 cars off the roads. That is probably close to 20 percent of the registered/insured cars in the State." Brooke Nash, chief of municipal waste reduction, Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, says Trash Metering "is the single most effective way for a community to reduce their waste and increase recycling, and that's good for the environment, good for the bottom line, and fairer to citizens."
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Financial Impact |
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| America's communities are discovering that waste reduction is not only a prudent environmental response, but also fiscally sound policy. WasteZero is proud to be part of this movement. |
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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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