Agenda - 11-19-2013-13 (4) - Laserfiche WebLink

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2 http://www.epa.gov/solidwaste/conserve/tools/payt/index.htm Typically, communities that already have a municipal utility billing system in place have sometimes found it convenient to add variations in waste cart size and collection frequency to the existing billing structure.Then the monthly water, electric or trash bill can be slightly altered to accommodate a varying charge for a varying size of trash cart. Private trash services can also readily alter their trash bills in a similar manner to accommodate a variety of billing scenarios for each customer.Weight-based approaches to residential waste collection have been proven impractical and it is costly and technically challenging to weigh accurately in motion. Commercial or non-residential waste collected typically in dumpsters or compactors is generally already subject to varying collection costs. Haulers charge customers differently depending on the volume, type of containers, frequency of collection and nature of the waste.Thus it is not a subject for discussion here, except to the extent that non-residential waste may be collected similarly too residential in bags or roll carts rather than dumpsters and the local governments or collectors may then apply a variable bag or can rate depending on volume. In North Carolina, seventeen counties apply some type of PAYT at convenience center and seven municipalities and one of them, Craven County, use some variant on PAYT for residential curbside waste collection.The type of payment system varies widely from punch cards to special bags to tags to cash, checks and credit cards. Items accepted and billed for also vary widely from bagged household waste only to a very wide variety including yard waste, bulky items, construction waste and rubble. Many private haulers may offer varying rates typically dependent on extra services such as more frequent collection, back door service as opposed to curbside, whether you use your own container or use a hauler provided container, etc. In general the vast majority of customers receive weekly curbside service using a roll cart with ninety to ninety-five gallon capacity and that suffices for most needs, thus that sector's waste collection practices are not explored in this discussion. Discussion In general a PAYT approach to financing waste disposal and incentivizing waste reduction has, as does any strategy, advantages and disadvantages. Some of the advantages include: Equity in disposal costs: If your household works to reduce waste or is a small household with little waste inherently, you pay only your household's costs of disposal and collection relatively proportional to the amount you generate, not averaged among all households of all sizes and waste generating rates. Control of disposal costs: Your household needs purchase only the amount of service it needs, be that a certain number of bags or tags or a particular size of cart or frequency of collection. Financing mechanism is more transparent: Rather than 'hide' waste collection and disposal costs in the general fund or some other broad funding category, prices of for waste collection and disposal can be completely or at least partially tied to the cost of service. Although, if fee is set to be used primarily as a disincentive to waste disposal, the fee can be disconnected from actual costs. 2