City to decide in May on ‘pay as you throw’ garbage system

The city of Charlotte will make a recommendation by May about whether to adopt a new garbage collection method called “pay as you throw,” which could change how residents dispose of their trash as well as how they pay for it.

If the city’s Solid Waste Services department recommends moving forward with the new system, it would then decide by fall how to implement the new collection process.

The City Council would ultimately decide whether residents should pay for how much trash they create, as they do for how much water they use or how much electricity they consume.

Earlier this year, a Raleigh-based company, Waste Zero, made a presentation to the city about pay as you throw.

Under that company’s system, which is used in some cities, including Fall River, Mass., residents are required to purchase special garbage bags. The bags are then placed inside existing rollout bins and placed at the curb.

When garbage trucks collect the trash, cameras mounted on the trucks can look inside the bins to make sure all waste is inside the special bags.

Joshua Kolling-Perin of Waste Zero said if a driver sees garbage not secured in a special bag, the driver can hit a button that records the transgression. The resident can then be warned by the city or fined.

“It’s a very streamlined system,” he said. “But different cities can choose how they want to do this.”

The city could choose to use a different method.

In a recent memo to council members, Solid Waste Services said residents could be charged based on the number of bags they use or the size of a container they fill. They also could be charged based on the weight of their trash.

Michelle Moore, the city’s Solid Waste Services deputy director, said other large cities such as Charlotte have used different-sized containers and allowed people to dispose of their trash in the same way they do now. For instance, the city might introduce a rollout container smaller than the 96-gallon container used today. Residents could be charged by the size of the container they choose, Moore said.

“For large cities (that have pay as you throw) typically you see different-sized containers,” Moore said.

She said she is worried that a system requiring residents to bag their garbage might be too complex.

If the city went to a pay as you throw system, one goal would be to encourage people to recycle more. That would save space in the city’s landfill in Cabarrus County near Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Mayor Dan Clodfelter and council member John Autry, who chairs the environment committee, have said they support studying the issue and like the idea.

The city’s Solid Waste budget for this fiscal year is $48.7 million.

Of that, the solid waste fee generates only $12.3 million. Single-family homes are billed $47 a year by the city and $15 for Mecklenburg County.

The solid waste fee is intended to cover the cost of trash disposal. The cost of collecting trash – along with recycling, yard waste and bulky items – comes from the city’s general fund, which also pays for services such as police, fire and roads.

This story was originally published November 17, 2014 at 5:48 PM with the headline "City to decide in May on ‘pay as you throw’ garbage system."