WOOLWICH

An informational session on the Pay As You Throw program garnered some skeptical responses from Woolwich residents at a public meeting on Wednesday night.

PAYT is a nationwide program that helps municipalities cut down on solid waste, encourages recycling and curtails trash and recycling bills. The program is currently implemented in 41 communities throughout the state of Maine, including Bath.

If the town were to accept this program, residents would dispose garbage in special trash bags provided by WasteZero, an organization that partners with towns and cities to provide supplies and service in navigating effective waste reduction programs like PAYT.

The bags would be available for purchase at local stores and residents would essentially be “pre-paying” for their garbage collection.

Wednesday’s presentation was made possible through a petition that was started by local resident Ben Tipton last year.

Five years ago, Tipton had proposed the same PAYT program to the town, but was unsuccessful. However, his recent petition has placed the issue back on the town warrant this year and will be presented to voters at Town Meeting on May 13.

Sarah Bernier, a representative of WasteZero, led Wednesday’s session, reviewing the program and how it would affect the town’s budget.

The town of Woolwich is spending $262,870 on trash and recycling this year.

Currently, $81,224 of the budget is used on a “tipping fee,” the price the town pays according to the total tons of non-recyclable waste produced. The current contract fee for Woolwich is $88 per ton.

The tipping fee can vary depending on how much garbage is generated by the town. A total of 923 tons of garbage was calculated for this year.

Through the PAYT program, WasteZero predicts a 40 percent waste reduction for the town of Woolwich in its first year, with a decrease from 923 tons of garbage to 553, which will significantly lower the price of tipping fees to $48,664.

The costs of the WasteZero garbage bags are $1 for a 15-gallon bag and $2 for a 30- gallon bag, though there is some flexibility in determining the price of the bags, according to Jonathan Appleyard of the Solid Waste Committee.

Bernier added that there are no other expenses to implement the PAYT program besides the cost of garbage bags. As WasteZero charges the town 29 cents per 30-gallon bag and 22 cents per 15-gallon bag to cover administrative costs, the town will make $1.71 from a 30-gallon bag and $.78 per 15-gallon bag from each bag sold.

In the first year of PAYT, the town is estimated to gain a total of $90,000 through the program — $62,000 through bag sales and $28,000 in disposal savings.

Fred Kahrl, chairman of the Solid Waste Committee, remained neutral on the town’s adoption of PAYT, but agreed it would encourage community members to take waste and recycling more seriously.

“We could completely avoid WasteZero and PAYT if we would wholeheartedly throw ourselves into the existing recycling program. PAYT is incentivizing something that already exists in the town,” he said. “How much we save directly has to do with how many people in town board the train. There’s a lot of variables in the future, but this is the beginning of managing our trash overall.”

Some community members were concerned that there would be more instances of littering or illegal dumping because of the price of the bags, but Bernier said this would encourage the town to recycle more instead of increasing the amount of waste.

“When people think about what they’re paying for every time they throw something away, they tend to recycle more,” she said.

Woolwich resident Nathaniel Rines, 17, also agreed, saying that the town needs motivation to recycle more.

“People aren’t being responsible with their trash as it is, and I think that we need an incentive in order to have people recycle more,” he said.

Residents were also divided about whether the $90,000 gained through the program would save the town money overall.

“Any money that is collected from the cost of the bags will go to offset the cost of the tipping fees, which will in turn reduce taxes,” said David King, chairman of the Select Board. “It will not, town-wide, save us money, but what it will do is it will shift the cost on people who use the services the most.”

The decision to implement this program will rest on the voters at Town Meeting, which falls on May 13 this year.

Concerned residents who are interested in learning more about PAYT and its effect on the town, can contact Sarah Bernier at 281- 3992.

dkim@timesrecord.com