By Sally Chappell

Bridgton Recycling Committee

The Bridgton Recycling Committee notes a certain amount of pushback on the prospect of the town converting to a Pay Per Bag system. Fear of the unknown may be driving the concern. Also, with no restrictions on the amount of trash presently deposited, it is understandable that a service considered free would generate the ire of users of the transfer station when required to pay scaled to the amount of use. That is why those of us proposing this change are doing our best to make the case that Pay Per Bag is an excellent option for Bridgton. The choice is yours in November.

The late William Rathje was the keynote speaker at a recycling conference here in Maine several years ago. I bought his book, co-authored with Cullen Murphy, Rubbish: The Archaeology of Garbage, and I refer to it frequently concerning trash issues. Rathje founded the “Garbage Project” at the University of Arizona, begun in the early 1970s. The Garbage Project is a scientific study of trash, which reveals a lot about human waste habits and also dispels some myths surrounding garbage.

In the hierarchy of solutions to garbage disposal, source reduction ranks first followed by recycling, incineration and landfilling according to the Environmental Protection Agency and most environmental groups as recorded in “Rubbish,” stating, “Source reduction is to garbage what preventive medicine is to health — a means of avoiding trouble before it happens.” 

Rathje recommended that the best approach to reducing the volume of the solid waste stream is to make people who generate lots of garbage to pay more for its disposal than people who don’t generate very much garbage. He featured the Seattle, WA, program and claimed, “Seattle’s program works because it is uncomplicated and harnesses the power of financial incentives to promote source reduction and recycling.”

The last chapter of “Rubbish” lists the Ten Commandments (presumably of sensible management of our waste). For the purpose of promoting Pay Per Bag as an ideal method of reducing waste, commandments numbers 3 and 4 speak to this goal: 3.) Be willing to pay for garbage disposal, and 4.) Use money as a behavioral incentive.

For those of us who protest, “My property taxes take care of waste disposal,” the town provides the means to dispose of our trash — the facility itself, the management of the transfer station, the trucks hired to take the trash to ecomaine, the employees’ wages, etc. We, the users of the transfer station, regulate the amount of trash the town has to deal with, and that factor favors a system of payment according to use.

Published in 1992, “Rubbish” still offers an insightful picture of waste in modern America. The Garbage Project, which ended in 2005, scientifically assessed the state of our waste habits, dispelled myths and gave a historical perspective of humanity’s waste habits over the millennia. Let us take heed of its wisdom and vote to adopt Pay Per Bag in November.