Large Cities Use PAYT To Overcome Unique
Challenges
More than 5,000
PAYT programs continue to gain popularity in cities large and small
across North America. A recent study by Seattle-based Skumatz
Economic Research Associates found that 5,245 cities in North
America now have PAYT programs. More than 60 cities in the United
States with populations greater than 100,000 practice
PAYT—representing nearly 25 percent of all U.S. cities with more
than 100,000 residents. The 2000 US Census shows nearly one-third of
US residents live in cities with populations of 100,000 or more. So
PAYT is becoming a common practice for more and more residents in
the county.
PAYT is a
proven method for reducing waste generation, and setting up these
programs in larger communities would reach a greater portion of the
population, potentially reducing the US waste generation rate
significantly. And with the help of EPA’s America Big Cities
Program, a technical assistance program to help large cities set up
PAYT programs (see related article, page 3), even more large cities
across the United States will start practicing PAYT.
In April 2001,
the Cornell Waste Management Institute (CWMI) released Pay As You
Throw for Large Municipalities. The report describes the problems
large municipalities typically encounter with PAYT programs and how
several large US cities are overcoming them. The information comes
from a PAYT roundtable funded by EPA Region 2, held December 2000,
hosted by the New York City Department of Sanitation and CWMI. The
event was the fourth in a series of roundtables designed to consider
waste management strategies for New York City after Fresh Kills
landfill on Staten Island closes. 
Both EPA and
Cornell research show that rate-structure design is a critical
element to all PAYT programs. Rates have to be high enough to cover
program costs and provide an incentive for residents to produce less
waste, but not so high that they create an intolerable burden on the
community. Some cities charge a flat fee for a set amount of
garbage, so reducing garbage output by half subsequently lowers
bills by half. Other cities, including Seattle, Washington, and
Austin, Texas, charge fees based on the size and number of garbage
containers residents put out for collection.
Choosing the
right container is another practical and important issue for the
city, in terms of designing a rate structure, and the residents, in
terms of convenience and cost. Many large cities found that using
containers instead of bags decreases pest infestation. Containers
are easily handled by automated collection trucks, but parked cars
can prevent trucks from reaching containers on the curb. The city of
San Francisco, California, found that PAYT works well when
collection workers wheel containers larger than 30 gallons to the
truck and empty them automatically, while smaller containers are
emptied manually. 
Seattle
provides residents with a choice of 10-, 20-, 30-, 60-, or 90-gallon
containers—larger containers cost more than smaller ones. Austin
offers a choice of 30-, 60-, or 90-gallon containers and charges a
flat fee of $7 per month, plus a rate charge based on container size
and quantity. The total charge appears on residents’ municipal
utility bills. Austin also lets residents buy extra garbage
“stickers” for weeks when their garbage capacity exceeds container
size. Both cities use the revenue generated by PAYT to cover costs
for solid waste education, transfer stations, recycling, and
disposal.
Several
solutions also exist for a corollary of rate structure design, which
is ensuring that households pay their waste bills. For health and
safety reasons, cities cannot discontinue garbage collection if
residents don’t pay their bills, so cities have to devise special
enforcement strategies. The city of Seattle issues water and garbage
bills jointly so that, if the city only receives partial payment,
the money covers garbage collection, and the city can shut off water
for nonpayment. The city of Buffalo, New York, applies unpaid
garbage bills to the property tax bill.
Approximately
10 percent of the 5,000 PAYT communities nationwide, including
Austin, have adopted some form of subsidy program to help low-income
residents pay their garbage bill. Austin’s program also offers
educational assistance to low-income customers to help them reduce
waste.
Large cities
often must administer PAYT in multi-family buildings where residents
deposit garbage in communal bins. In New York City, for example,
approximately 70 percent of the city’s 8 million residents live in
multi-unit buildings. Some cities, such as Austin and San Francisco,
consider smaller buildings of four to six units as single households
and require them to participate in PAYT programs. Larger complexes
and city agencies are treated as commercial properties, which are
serviced by private haulers. Other cities simply omit all complexes
from the program. One system that demonstrates how to make PAYT work
in large complexes uses special chutes that require tenants to sort
garbage and recyclables and charges residents for each container of
garbage they throw out.
Want to promote your community’s PAYT
program?
Contact Jan
Canterbury at EPA by e-mail at canterbury.janice@ epa.gov
to share your community’s PAYT success
stories with the readers of the PAYT
Bulletin. |
Historically,
the number-one fear identified by cities in implementing PAYT has
been illegal dumping, but Cornell’s study corroborates EPA-funded
research by Duke University, which found that this is not as big a
problem as often feared. Austin and San Francisco noted that they
have not seen an increase in illegal dumping since starting PAYT. If
resistance stemming from dumping and other concerns becomes a
barrier to implementing PAYT, then a desire to decrease waste
generation, a need for new municipal revenue, or citizens’ concern
about the equity of the existing garbage collection system all can
provide significant motivation.
For more
information or to view a copy of the report, visit the CWMI Web site
at www.cfe.cornell.edu/wmi.
Back
to top
Boulder Uses
PAYT To Roll Fewer Cans to Curb 
On Nov. 1, the
city of Boulder, Colorado, launched a new curbside trash program
featuring variable-rate trash collection combined with expanded
recycling. The program culminates months of research on how to
restructure the city’s waste collection system to reach Boulder’s 50
percent waste diversion goal. Under a new city ordinance, Boulder’s
private enterprise trash haulers charge by the can and collect an
expanded assortment of recyclables.
Boulder’s new
PAYT program motivates residents to produce less trash, because
adding another trash unit is expensive, sometimes costing twice as
much as the first. In the previous system, adding a second or third
trash unit to their curbside service cost citizens only a dollar or
two, so adding another can didn’t hurt. Now citizens check their
pocketbooks before subscribing to another can. Boulder hopes that
between the economic incentive and new recycling programs, residents
will reduce the number of cans collected per week, hence reducing
the amount of waste generated.
“We paired two
opportunities together—starting up a PAYT program and starting up
significant new recycling programs, including a program for
hard-to-recycle items,” said Kara Dinhoffer, Boulder’s recycling
coordinator. Curbside collection not only includes the usual
newspaper, glass, and aluminum streams, but also sorted mail and
office paper, magazines and catalogs, and milk cartons and juice
boxes. To handle the larger stream of recyclables, Boulder teamed
with EcoCycle, an innovative nonprofit recycler in Boulder, to open
a new materials recycling facility earlier this year.
Boulder also is
working with EcoCycle to find a permanent home for its
hard-to-recycle (HTR) center, which recycles computers, electronics,
furniture, textiles, carpet, and anything else with contents worth
using again. EcoCycle estimates that an HTR facility could reuse and
recycle an additional 7 percent or more of the residential waste
stream.
Back
to top
Meeting the Challenge
Boulder needed
to overhaul its previous system when the cost to run its municipal
curbside recycling program was growing faster than the revenues
generated by a “trash tax” collected through each citizen’s garbage
bill. Money raised through the trash tax was not enough for the city
to fund curbside recycling, plus yard waste and educational
programs. Boulder residents also wanted more opportunities for
recycling. The city responded with the new ordinance, which, by
including PAYT, fulfilled several interconnected
objectives.
The new
ordinance transfers responsibility for collecting curbside
recyclables from the city to private trash haulers. By transferring
recycling responsibilities to the haulers, the city could reallocate
nearly $880,000 in trash tax revenues it was spending annually on
curbside recycling. Under the new ordinance, the trash tax now funds
new programs such as composting seminars, yard waste pickup,
construction and demolition waste education, and new HTR
services.
“The new city
ordinance requires waste haulers to provide ‘unlimited’ curbside
recycling,” said Mark Ruzzin of EcoCycle. “This means that waste
haulers cannot charge residents a surcharge for overfilling the
recycling container.” Because the city’s goal is for each customer
to be a “one-can” household, the city worked with haulers to
structure a system that allows them to cover the cost of unlimited
recycling, while still motivating citizens to generate less
trash.
To help
citizens who strive to be “one-canners,” the city offers residents a
waste audit to help each household identify ways they can reduce
waste. Typical options include taking full advantage of curbside
recycling and composting programs and purchasing items with reduced
packaging. In addition, the city is exploring the possibility of
subsidizing weekly yard waste pickup in the spring. The city also is
continuing to expand educational programs that teach citizens how to
minimize waste and recycle more.
Back
to top
Measuring the Progress
The ability to
measure success is a vital component of a PAYT program. According to
Kara Dinhoffer, it has been difficult to measure progress toward the
50 percent waste diversion goal, because Colorado has required
minimal reporting for landfills, trash haulers, and other waste
managers. The ordinance requires haulers to report the amount of
trash and recycling they pick up from residents.
“For the first
time, we can see our waste generation rate and recycling rate. Over
time, we can measure our progress,” Dinhoffer said. “As we
understand our waste streams, Boulder can expand opportunities for
curbside recycling and programs to recycle more challenging items.”
For more
information on Boulder’s program, contact Kara Dinhoffer, Boulder’s
recycling coordinator, at 303 441-3004, or visit Boulder’s Web site
at
www.ci.boulder.co.us/environmentalaffairs.
Back
to top
EPA Takes PAYT Campaign to Philadelphia and
Dubuque
EPA’s
American Big Cities (ABC) Campaign—aimed at promoting the benefits
of PAYT programs to US cities with populations greater than
50,000—was in full swing this summer and early fall. EPA
participated in workshops in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and
Dubuque, Iowa, to talk to local and regional city officials about
how and why to start a PAYT program.
Planting Seeds in
Philadelphia 
The city of
Philadelphia hosted a workshop to plant the seeds for setting up
PAYT programs in the city and in other localities in the region.
Representatives from the Philadelphia Recycling Office, the
Department of Streets, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental
Protection, and EPA Region 3, along with officials from the cities
of Abington, Scranton, and Penn Township, Pennsylvania, and Dover,
Delaware, gathered in late August to participate in the
workshop.
PAYT champions
from Perkasie Borough and York County, Pennsylvania, shared the keys
to their programs’ success. With a strong emphasis on continuing
citizen education and active enforcement, city representatives
talked about rate-structure and container options and overviewed the
pros and cons to setting up PAYT programs.
York County’s
Gene Hejmenowski, who started up and still runs the county’s
program, personally inspects residents’ garbage and recycling bins
to make sure people are recycling all that they can. When residents
deposit trash in their recycling bin, he leaves a warning that
haulers will not pick up contaminated recyclables, and when
residents recycle properly, he leaves a note with praise and
encouragement.
Hejmenowski’s infectious enthusiasm and leadership
abilities have gained him the respect of the townspeople and has
inspired citizens—from school children to business leaders—to
recycle more materials and throw away less trash. His goal is to
spread the word about PAYT throughout Pennsylvania and encourage
other communities to follow York County’s model.
PAYT Economic
Consultant John Gibson reviewed technical issues, including
strategic planning, drafting a timeline for setting up a PAYT
program, billing and rate-setting specifics, and enforcement issues.
The second half of the workshop was structured as a
question-and-answer roundtable, so city representatives could
benefit from the expertise of EPA representatives and cities with
PAYT programs in place.
Back
to top
Dubuque Ready To Kick Off
PAYT 
The city of
Dubuque, Iowa, with a population of 58,000, plans to start up a PAYT
program by summer 2002. At the Dubuque PAYT workshop, held in
October, city officials and EPA focused on what type of container
would work best for the city’s participants and how the program
would work financially.
The EPA
technical assistance staff found a surprising problem for the city
of Dubuque—regional climactic and geographic conditions. Heavy winds
can blow cans and lids down the street, and the frequent winter
snowfall piled on top of containers can make them hard for residents
to maneuver. As a result, choosing the right container is not a
simple task. Hills and narrow streets and houses built near sharp
drop-offs also can make it difficult for some residents to set out
heavy carts. But using bags is not necessarily the solution either.
Residents also are concerned about animals breaking through bags and
scattering garbage in the streets. Dubuque officials learned from
EPA how other cities have dealt with these issues.
The city of
Dubuque will involve citizens every step of the way in planning and
implementing its PAYT program. A survey conducted by the city shows
that residents are supportive overall of setting up a PAYT program.
In a city of traditional values and strong-minded individuals,
residents want to recycle their discards and throw less trash in the
landfill.
City officials
have asked residents what type of container they would like to use,
and residents are split on whether bags or cans are a better option.
The city has been communicating the details of the forthcoming PAYT
program by holding citizen meetings to talk about the programs and
address residents’ concerns.
Gibson reviewed
rate-structure options by plugging in costs and population
statistics from the city of Dubuque into his RateMaker software
program. Gibson demonstrated the estimated revenues the city would
bring in based on the costs to residents of using different-sized
containers or number of bags.
In the past 3
years, EPA has held PAYT workshops in Fort Worth, Texas; Ann Arbor,
Michigan; New Orleans, Louisiana; and Lowell, Massachusetts.
For more
information on the PAYT ABC Campaign, contact Jan Canterbury at 703
308-7264, or by e-mail at mailto:canterbury.janice@%20epa.gov.
For more information about York County, Pennsylvania’s, PAYT
program, contact Gene Hejmenowski at 717 637-1561. To order copies
of the PAYT Tool Kit, PAYT video, or other materials, visit the PAYT
Web site at www.epa.gov/payt,
or call the PAYT Helpline at 888 EPA-PAYT.
Back
to top |
|
|
