'Pay as you throw' program may be next step

By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor

SPRINGFIELD The trash fee that Springfield residents will face in a few weeks may be the first step toward a "pay as you throw" program that would encourage greater recycling and allow citizens to pay exactly for the trash they create rather than a general fee.

This new plan was discussed at two recent meetings. On both Aug. 4 and Aug. 9 two City Council subcommittees quizzed city officials on the details of the trash fee, the necessity of the fee and whether or not the Finance Control Board would consider delaying the fee and explore other possible means of additional revenues.

The City Councilors attending the meeting included Timothy Rooke, Rosemarie Mazza-Moriarty, William Foley and Bruce Stebbins. The city's chief financial officer Mary Tzambazakis, and Allan Chwalek, the director of the city's Department of Public Works answered the councilors' questions at the Aug. 4 meeting while Chwalek was the sole representative at the Aug. 9 meeting.

Suggestions made at the Aug. 4 meeting to raise income without instituting a trash fee included seeking partnership with other communities to lower costs on certain city services and setting up non-residents fees at the city's golf courses.

Since no members of the Finance Control Board (FCB) was at either meeting, there were no additional details about whether or not these suggestions would be considered. What was stressed is that the trash fee will be a reality.

Rooke asked at the Aug. 4 meeting if the trash fee was merely a revenue source then was there an option to cut $2 million from the city's budget or to create other revenue streams. Tzambazakis explained the FCB included the plan in order to balance the city's next budget.

Tzambazakis said that a "pay as you throw" plan would be at least a year away .

Chwalek said the current revenue the city receives from recycling is $150,000. Recycling reduces the weight of the collected trash and the cost the city incurs at the incinerator.

Chwalek said the city needs money up-front for a pay as you throw plan as the new plan would need more recycling bins, more recycling pick-ups and more labor.

Chwalek noted that East Longmeadow, which instituted as pay as you throw plan over a year ago, has experienced a 50 percent increase in it recycling revenues.

Councilors asked both Tzambazakis and Chwalek about what other cities the size of Springfield have a trash fee or a "pay as you throw" plan. Worcester was the largest, Chwalek said.

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To see how the Worcester plan works, Reminder Publications contacted Robert Fiore, the assistant to the city's Commissioner of Public Works.

In Worcester, people buy specially marked garbage bags. A 30-gallon size costs $1 while a 15-gallon size is 50 cents.

The sale of the bags provides 75 to 80 percent of the budget needed for trash removal. The rest is raised through property taxes.

Fiore noted that some cities with a "pay as you throw" program such as Utica, NY, raise all of the trash removal funds through the sale of the garbage bags. The city government in Utica charges $3 a bag.

Fiore said that Worcester was facing budgetary problems in the early 1990s and a "pay as you throw" plan was implemented in November of 1993. There was no intermediary step as Springfield is taking, he said.

"Our community had to adapt with changing problems," he said.

At the time, there was criticism of the plan, Fiore said, from people who believed the program would encourage illegal dumping. He said the majority of illegal dumping consists of bulk items, not bags of trash.

Worcester doesn't have pick-up service of bulk items but runs a bulk item drop-off center.

He said that after more than a decade of the "pay as you throw" program, buying the special bags and participating in the program is "second nature" to Worcester residents.