By Kate Fitzcharles

Bridgton Recycling Committee

What is Pay Per Bag? PPB is an incentive to encourage the average citizen to recycle more. It is a way for consumers to control their solid waste expense, rather than blindly pay a portion of their property tax for the municipality to transport and dispose of their solid waste. PPB fairly spreads the cost to get rid of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) among all citizens, not just taxpayers. Yes, PPB will cost some extra money, but the consumer has control. You only pay for what you throw away. It cost the citizen nothing to recycle, other than some effort.

People often feel this is double taxation. Or they want to know if PPB will decrease their property taxes. Given the number of other variables in a town budget, it is nearly impossible to state if and/or how much taxes could be reduced. Think of it as not another tax, but as a tax avoidance. If the cost to get rid of our trash increases, and it has, the town will need to look for ways to raise revenues or cut costs. If an effort to keep the mil rate down, cuts could result and services would suffer. How much control would you have over that? You can control what it cost you to get rid of your trash in the same way you conserve electricity or water.

The town’s Recycling Committee started looking into the necessity of going to PPB a few years ago. The town has utilized multiple incentives to keep cost down. These incentives include food waste diversion, yard waste diversion and the transfer station store, fondly referred to as The Bridgton Boutique. In 2010, the town made the switch from multi-sort recycling to single sort in an effort to increase and simplify recycling. Our rates were 21% in 2010 and today stand at a sad 20%. So…here we are, discussing PPB.

Since our dive into the belly of PPB (around December of 2018), the town has seen an increase of 5% in the cost of the tipping fee for trash ($73 per ton to $76.50 per ton). We are quite possibly looking at an increase to $79.50 per ton in July 2022. Prior to 2019, there was no tipping fee on recycling. With the decrease in foreign recycling markets due to contamination, a tipping fee of $35 per ton was instated. Yes, it does cost to get rid of recycling, but at less than half the cost of trash. Folks, we generate a lot of trash…2,118 tons were transported to ecomaine in 2021. An additional 509 tons were transported to Naples to Pine Tree Waste on occasions that ecomaine was shut down for repairs, cleaning, etc. This additional 509 tons had a less costly hauling fee per load ($140 per load), but a tipping fee of $105 per ton. You do the math, but if you don’t want to, I have the figures available. 

On top of tipping fees, we also pay a hauling fee per load to ecomaine (and Pine Tree when we have to). Hauling fees have increased 11.5% going from $242 per load to $270 per load. Our approximate cost to transport our MSW in 2021 was $337,266.

PPB has proven to be a very fair and effective way to have some control over these costs. Based on a 44% reduction rate, a diversion of 1,156 tons, Waste Zero figures a savings of $88,443 in tipping fees at the going rate of $76.50 per ton. A more conservative rate of 30% — a 788-ton reduction — would result in savings of $60,305. Let’s not forget the possible hike to a tipping fee of $79.50 per ton later this year.

The only thing that would change for you, the citizen, is the color of the bag you would put your trash into. You would still purchase bags at a local store. The bags would be good quality bags. Your recycling can go to the transfer station in any container you choose, and cost you nothing to dispose of. You can further reduce your costs by taking advantage of the town’s compost pile for your yard and kitchen waste or try your hand at home composting. Kitchen and yard waste compose 25 to 50% of what people throw away.

The committee and the select board have given this a lot of serious thought. If there were other viable alternatives, we would certainly explore them. We feel that PPB has a proven track record in other municipalities. We feel that it is fair, simple, and cost effective. Change is hard, we get it. But we can work together and learn from one another for the fiscal health of our municipality and the protection our environment.