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8/7/2008
SCITUATE - Taxpayers spent an unanticipated $23,076 last year by throwing out otherwise recyclable goods as garbage, the town's new Recycling Committee has learned.
Scituate exceeded its solid waste cap at the Central Landfill in Johnston in fiscal 2008 by 9 percent, Sarah Kite, recycling manager for Rhode Island Resource Recovery reported to the group at its first meeting on Tuesday, July 29.
The town was allotted a solid waste cap of 4,478 tons, but dumped 4,886 tons, which meant taxpayers spent $23,076 "more than the town had to spend," Kite said.
Kite was encouraging the committee, which is chaired by council member Wendy Knowlton, "to assess what you are doing, look at what other communities are doing and take the first steps, inexpensive steps" toward increasing recycling.
By the end of the session, the committee determined it should:
* Distribute paper and bottle and cans recycling bins to residents who don't already have them or need new ones;
* Write an application to the state agency for a grant to pay for a Recycling Coordinator;
* Investigate the prospect of eventual conversion to a 'pay as you throw' trash collection program whereby residents would buy disposal bags;
* Plan a tour of the Central Landfill and recycling center in Johnston this fall for town residents to educate them about the importance of recycling;
* Provide an update on recycling for the Budget Committee, which is looking for ways to cut costs;
* Review the town's ordinances pertaining to solid waste and recycling to assure they are in line with community's trash hauling contract;
* Obtain a copy of the trash hauling contract with Rambone Disposal Services to determine that the company is not collecting more trash than agreed.
* Consider increasing recycling pick-up from once every two weeks to once a week.
"When you look at the disposal fees paid by Foster and Scituate in Fiscal Year 2008, it's interesting and important to note that the towns have twice-monthly recyclables collection instead of weekly collections like the other communities in the northern part of the state," Kite told The Valley Breeze & Observer on July 31.
"This twice-monthly collection makes recycling less convenient for residents of the towns. Because people have to wait two weeks to have recyclables picked up, if they run out of room in their bins, they just throw away the extra recyclables. This adds unnecessary solid waste tonnage to the towns' totals, increasing the amount taxpayers have to pay to dispose their trash.
"The most convenient way to increase recycling and reduce solid waste is to have weekly curbside collection. However, if that option proves too costly, the towns can certainly improve access to recycling by providing containers in town where residents can drop off their extra recyclables. Generally these containers are located at the Public Works facilities where they can be monitored."
Peggy Pinkey, an employee in the Town Clerk's office, who has spearheaded a recycling effort in Town Hall for two years, was the only other member of the committee to attend its first session last Tuesday. Donald N. Campbell and Milton Schumacher did not attend the session at the Chopmist Hill Center on Tuesday afternoon.
Lacking a quorum, the committee did not take a vote, but only discussed issues.
Knowlton said she has renewed interest in the financial benefits of recycling because of the deliberations that she and fellow council members meeting as the Budget Committee had about a looming shortfall in the town budget caused by unexpectedly high fuel and energy prices.
"Pending our budget meeting (Tuesday, July 22) I got remotivated, there is a lot of money out there," Knowlton said.
The Town Council is grappling with balancing its budget to keep up with skyrocketing fuel prices by coming up with means to save money, going so far as to consider the prospect of lay-offs.
Two jobs have already been consolidated by merging the Tax Assessor and Deputy Town Clerk positions and other personnel shifts at the Department of Public Works to reduce spending.
Knowlton thinks that better recycling can have a twofold effect on the town's finances: reduce the tipping fee overage and increase the profit sharing check that towns annually receive from resource recovery for the amount of recycling they achieve.
Kite, a Scituate resident and a longtime environmentalist, agreed.
Scituate will receive a profit sharing check from resource recovery later this month for recycling 1,217 tons of paper, cans, plastics and bottles, a rate of 18.9 percent of its waste. Towns and cities are required to recycle 35 percent of their waste by 2012, Kite said.
Currently, Scituate recycles slightly below the state average, Kite said.
That's where a large portion of the extra $23,000 likely was spent: residents disposing of materials as solid waste that should be separated and recycled, Kite said.
"That's sizeable, that is a big chunk of money," Kite said.
The state's cities and towns will have added motivation to increase their recycling efforts and monitor trash collection more closely with the recently passed law that requires every municipality to have recycling and solid waste disposal plan.
"By law they must come up with a plan," Kite said. "They can't drag their feet anymore."
The tipping fee totals in neighboring communities as compiled by Rhode Island Resource Recovery:
North Providence:
$387,168 (stayed under the cap by 12 percent)
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Smithfield:
$245,696 (stayed under the cap by 14 percent)
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Glocester:
$108,800 (stayed under the cap by 22 percent)
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Foster:
$72,102 (over the cap by 12 percent)
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Scituate:
$166,372 (over the cap by 9 percent)
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(all dollar amounts are rounded to the nearest whole dollar)
