CAPE ELIZABETH – The way Cape Elizabeth handles its solid waste will not change, at least not for the time being.

Following a public hearing Monday on a proposed “pay-per-bag” trash removal system, in which residents would be charged for how much trash they generate, the Cape Elizabeth Town Council decided to table the issue until its Nov. 1 workshop after hearing from residents who argued against changing the current system.

“I can assure you all the councilors were very eager to hear what you thought. I don’t anticipate making a decision tonight. This was intended to be a listening session because there are a lot of pluses and minuses to it,” Anne Swift-Kayatta, chairwoman of the Town Council, told to the crowd just after closing the public hearing.

Swift-Kayatta said while the council continues to look into pay-per-bag, the operation of the transfer station and the current trash removal system will remained untouched.

“I don’t sense there is any great impetus on the council to decide something in the next few months or to precipitously change the system or close the dump,” she said.

Swift-Kayatta said the hope of the November workshop is that the council would come up with some sort of consensus about how to proceed before presenting the idea before the general public.

A number of residents at the meeting, including Carolyn Smith and Phil St. Germain, said they don’t feel the current system needs replacing.

“I think we already have a system that works that people are happy with,” Smith said.

The pay-per-bag system, St. Germain said, adds “needless bureaucracy and added labor.”

David Griffin said the pay-per-bag system would be an inconvenience because “you have to buy the bags, bag the trash and then still bring it to the transfer station.”

“The direct benefit from my perspective is nothing. It is more work for me. It is more expensive for me,” said Robert Huff. “It looks like an easy way to pick our pockets.”

Pat Bothel told the council it seems contradictory for the town to pride itself on its recycling and environmental stewardship and then require the residents to purchase plastic bags.

“We are just adding more plastic [to the waste stream],” she said.

She said in order to increase recycling and reduce the cost of trash removal, the town must educate the public more, not change the way it removes trash.

“Educationally there is a lot more we can do, that perhaps the Recycling Committee is working on, before we take this step,” Bothel said.

“We may have to do that,” she added of adopting a pay-per-bag system. “But I think we need to exhaust all avenues before we do that.”

Educating the public about recycling and reducing waste does not have to fall under the purview of town officials, said resident Bruce Lockwood, who said he has taken on that responsibility himself, at least at his household.

“I am devoted to recycling,” he said. “I recycle everything. When I see my kids throw away something that can be recycled, I pull it out of the trash and educate them about the fact we should be recycling that.”

That said, Lockwood said he doesn’t feel pay-per-bag is the best, or most environmentally friendly, trash removal system for Cape Elizabeth, despite increasingly being used in other communities.

“Instead of copycatting what others are doing, why don’t we become a leader in this and a green leader in the state?” he asked.

The debate on the pay-per-bag system surfaced as the council was exploring ways to reduce waste removal costs.

Last year, the town spent more than $769,000 on waste removal. That number has been going down because of increased recycling efforts in town. In fiscal year 2007, the town spent $816,000 for waste removal.

Switching to a pay-per-bag approach, which has been adopted by a number of communities in the area, is expected to save even more money in waste removal by increasing recycling. For every 1 percent of trash diverted from the hopper to recycling bins, the town expects to save $3,676, in part because it costs less to remove recycled material than waste.

If the town’s current recycling rate of 32 percent can be increased to 50 percent, the statewide recycling goal, the town could save $70,000 a year, a 4-cent decrease on the tax rate.

Town Manager Mike McGovern said the revenue generated by the sale of the plastic trash bags would be rolled into the general fund and toward reducing go the property tax rate.

“If it passed, and I am not seeing a lot of support for it right now, the revenue would in fact reduce the amount that would be added to taxes,” he said.