(Photo/Laura Hayes)
SHREWSBURY – Shrewsbury’s pay-as-you-throw trash collection program started in 2008, and since that point, residents have familiarized themselves with the baby-blue trash bags available for purchase at many local establishments.
While the pay-as-you-throw system has critics throughout town, local government officials are touting the system’s benefits. Of the 40 largest communities that reported to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) in 2021, Shrewsbury had the third-lowest per-capita waste disposal rate. Worcester, another pay-as-you-throw community, was the most trash efficient.
“A lot of residents in Shrewsbury don’t like bags, they would prefer to have a bin,” said Solid Waste and Recycling Program Manager Gosia Stolarska. “But, the MassDEP has some statistics on their website that… show that if we give residents trash bins, household trash will double.”
According to the MassDEP, pay-as-you-throw municipalities create 29% less trash when compared to other communities. The pay-as-you-throw towns and cities reduced solid waste tonnage by up to 50%. If every community were to adopt programs similar to Shrewsbury, municipalities would save roughly $48 million, the state says.
The pay-as-you-throw program boils down to something everyone has heard: reduce, reuse, recycle.
“[Reducing, reusing, and recycling] are important parts of the process. The last item is to throw away and waste, and so what we’re trying to do is get as little in that waste category as possible. One of the interesting things about the program we have — the pay-as-you-throw program — is it encourages all three of those processes. People are making conscious decisions to use less to start with and to reuse things,” said Mark Dancy, the president of WasteZero, Shrewsbury’s pay-as-you-throw bag vendor.
The pay-as-you-throw bags can be expensive, but Stolarska said the price is still competitive with private companies’ prices. The price also makes trash collection fair for all; if the town offered bags for free, customers would pay for the trash collection cost in their taxes, potentially paying for people who dispose much more than they do.
“Consumers are going to pay for it somewhere — in their taxes. It makes more sense from a fairness standpoint and from an effectiveness standpoint to have the resident pay based on what they use. We do that in every aspect in our lives; we do it with electricity, we do that with water — we pay for what we use,” said Dancy.
The program is just one environmentally friendly initiative in Shrewsbury — the town is currently developing a climate resiliency plan, and the community was recently awarded a Green Communities grant.
“This is something we care about as a town. It’s something that’s made its way into our strategic plans. So by following what the community has said, I think these initiatives line up with our planning process and what the community expects from us as their local government,” said Communications Coordinator Taylor Galusha.
The MassDEP provides a “recyclopedia,” which outlines which products can and cannot be effectively recycled.
“Reducing waste by the amount we’re talking about… has about as much impact as eliminating the entire greenhouse gas emission for the city government. It’s the biggest single thing that can be done. The residents are really making a difference by participating,” Dancy told the Community Advocate.
For more information on the pay-as-you-throw program, visit https://tinyurl.com/SH-PAYT
