United States
                         Environmental Protection
                         Agency
                              Solid Waste and
                              Emergency Response
                              (5306W)
EPA530-N-99-008
Fall 1999
www.epa.gov/payt
?,EPA
A Listing of Pay-As-You-Throw News and Events
                           B      U
                                              I      N
                          The Increasing  Global
                          Trend  Toward  PAYT
                                round the world, participation in PAYT has increased. Municipal solid waste (MSW)
                          ^^ managers are focusing on both the environmental and economic sustainability of their
                          f*^. MSW programs. Currently, PAYT is being considered by larger U.S. cities from coast
                          to coast. The lead article discusses this big city trend and the U.S. Environmental Protection
                          Agency (EPA) assistance available to them.
                            The popularity of PAYT is not just an American phenomenon. In countries as diverse
                          as China, Israel, and Brazil, interest in PAYT is gaining momentum. Beginning on page 2 of
                          this Bulletin, we detail a PAYT program of one of our northern neighbors and also glance at a
                          program from "down under."

                          Big  Cities  Explore PAYT
                                              PAYT encourages waste prevention and recycling, which in turn leads
                                           to increased global climate change benefits (see "Climate Change, PAYT,
                                           and You" in the summer 1999 issue). Communities with large popula-
                                           tions can contribute significantly to the  reduction.of.greennQuse gas
                                           emissions by instituting a PAYT program. Large cities, however, often
                                           face complex challenges when designing and implementing a PAYT
                                           program, from accommodating multi-family buildings to educating non-
                                           English speakers to financing the program without straining overbur-
                                           dened city services. To help large cities address these concerns, EPA
                                           recendy cosponsored a workshop with the International City/County
                                           Management Association (ICMA).
                            Ten cities attended the hands-on workshop held in May in Chicago, Illinois, including
                          New York City, New York; Santa Fe, New Mexico; Ann Arbor, Michigan; New Orleans,
                          Louisiana; Honolulu, Hawaii; and Miami Beach, Florida. The workshop began with a pre-
                          sentation of the key issues and steps involved in implementing a successful PAYT program by
                          PAYT technical experts from Seatde, Washington; San Jose,  California; and Austin, Texas.
                          Later in the workshop, participants were given the option of attending an in-depth session on
                          how to set PAYT rates. Attendees found the workshop to be informative and helpful. "Talking
                          with representatives from other PAYT cities was helpful in gaining insight into the logistics
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     and potential barriers of implementing a PAYT program,"
     said Lisa Maack, a program manager with the City of
     New Orleans Department of Sanitation.
        To maintain the momentum gained at the Chicago
     workshop, ICMA is providing followup technical assis-
     tance to big cities serious about implementing a PAYT
     program. Of the cities in attendance, three are beginning
     work to implement PAYT programs. Officials from one
     of these cities, New Orleans, Louisiana, believe PAYT is
     the key to improving their curbside recycling program.
        Even though New Orleans' curbside recycling program
     enjoys a 50 percent participation rate, city officials would
     like to see the program increase its recycling tonnage rate
     and economic viability. The approximately 150,000
     households in the program currently pay for garbage and
     recycling services through a flat fee on their monthly
     water bill. The mayor of the city is interested in learning
     more about how PAYT would work in New Orleans,
     including addressing concerns about illegal dumping. To
     explore both PAYT and improvements to the curbside
     recycling program, the city set up  a task force comprised
     of community groups.  As part of the technical assistance
     provided by ICMA, the task force and city council will
     receive onc-on-one guidance about PAYT tailored to the
     city's specific needs.
       As New Orleans progresses in its efforts to bring PAYT
     to the city, EPA will follow the process to garner tips and
     solutions for the benefit of other big cities. Stay tuned!

     Crossing Borders—
     PAYT  Success in  Canada
              hile PAYT programs continue to gain
             momentum in the United States, our northern
             neighbors also have started reaping the program's
     environmental and economic benefits, spreading the unit-
     pricing word from Quebec to British Columbia. One
                     Sf. Albert promotes PAYT
  community in particular, St. Albert, Alberta, has a well-
  established, successful "user pay" waste collection pro-
  gram. St. Albert's experience in designing, implementing,
  and maintaining their program offers a glimpse of PAYT
  on the international stage, revealing unique regional fea-
  tures as well as the challenges and rewards familiar to any
  PAYT community.
                    ,r?n\iiL  _
                       Alberta
    Population:

    Start date:
           -       -"
    50,000
July 199
     Resting on the banks of the Sturgeon River and bor-
  dering the sprawling metropolis of Edmonton, Alberta,
  St. Albert was the first city in western Canada to imple-
  ment a full PAYT system. While many communities face
  the challenge of gaining residents' support for a unit-
  pricing system, St. Albert's residents provided the impetus
  for the change, with 64 percent voicing support for a
  PAYT system before it was even implemented. Under
  their previous system, residents began to cite the inequity
  of a situation where someone who sets out 1 can of refuse
  pays as much as someone who sets out 10 cans.
     Capitalizing on this enthusiasm for reform, the city
  experimented with two pilot programs designed to assess
  public satisfaction with different containers and collection
  systems. St. Albert modeled its program on several differ-
  ent cities,  including Victoria, British Columbia, and;
  Seattle, Washington; program developers also relied on
-EPA's-rate.structure tools and materials during this devel-,
  opment stage. Based on the success of these two pilots—
  residents disposed of 20 percent less waste and diverted
  10 times more yard trimmings—St. Albert moved all
 waste management costs (including collection and trans-
 portation) from the tax base to the utility bill and fully
 implemented a PAYT program.
    Aside from waste reduction potential, the city gleaned
 other important feedback from the pilot projects, learning
 that while half of the residents preferred bags, the other
 half wanted to use cans. To accommodate these prefer-
 ences, St. Albert set up a bag  and can program, allowing
 residents to choose their preferred containers. Whether
 choosing bags or cans, all residents select from three
 subscription volumes: one, two, or three cans (or bag
 equivalents) and paying the corresponding rate on their
 utility bills. If they exceed their limit, they must buy a
 $1.50 sticker for every additional bag or can they set out.
2 PAYT Bulletin

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   Although most of St. Albert s residents welcomed the
PAYT program, a change is still a change, and the city
faced the familiar challenge of publicizing and promoting
its new system.          	____
Outreach brochures
and pamphlets were
dispersed, but City
Engineer Dwayne
Kalynchuk describes
the city's most effec-
tive educational
device as unusually
entertaining. "We
had a local children's
theater group per-
form a skit, set to rap
music, about the
its benefits. They
even used garbage
cans as instruments,
touring schools and
malls and generating a lot of pub-
lic and media interest. It was real-
ly something different, a neat way
to capture everyone's attention."
   Clearly, these innovative outreach strategies paid off. In
the 3 years since St. Alberts PAYT program took off, the
city's overall garbage disposal rate has dropped by more
than 40 percent, already nearing the 50 percent reduction
goal by 2000 set by the Canadian Council of Ministers of
the Environment (CCME). The program also has been
voted the Outstanding Municipal Program by the
Recycling Council of Alberta and has been featured in
numerous publications.
                       "With its impressive achievements, it's hard to imagine
                    that St. Albert faced many obstacles in its PAYT imple-
                    mentation, but in actuality, Kalynchuk noted that one of
                                                     the program's prob-
                                                     lems was, in fact, its
                                                     overwhelming success.
                                                     "The program created
                                                     such a reduction in
                                                     waste that its  revenues
                                                     fell short in the first
                                                     year and we had trou-
                                                     ble covering the cost
                                                     of collection.  We had
                                                     to raise fees and that
                                                     was not well received.
                                                     It's  really important to
                                                     be conservative on
                                                     rate estimates, making
                                                     careful predictions of
                                                     your diversion rates."
                                                     Kalynchuk also
Children's theatre keeps the beat and spreads
 the word about St. Albert's PAYT program.
                                                                                             mentioned that chal-
                                                                                  lenges continue to arise in the
                                                                                  maintenance of the program. "A
                                                                                  continuing education program
                                                            would help reinforce the messages and methods that our
                                                            initial outreach efforts emphasized. In addition, consistent
                                                            enforcement of program collection rules is essential to
                                                            keeping all residents in step with the system."
                                                                For more information on St. Albert's PAYT program,
                                                            contact Dwayne Kalynchuk at 780 459-1653 or
                                                            .                         ^
                         PAYT  Down  Under
                    In other international PAYT news, the Hunter Waste
                 Planning and Management Board of New South Wales,
                 Australia, recently released two research reports recommend-
                 ing the institution of a variable rate system. The first report
                 focuses on investigating and reviewing existing PAYT
                 programs and assesses the different pricing systems. The
                 second report covers implementation strategies that could
                 be employed for each of the pricing systems. The Board has
                 begun discussing the variable rate system with elected
                 officials, and implementation will begin thereafter. For more
                 information on PAYT in Australia, contact Tony Cade,
                 general manager of New  South Wales Waste Boards, at
                 .
                                                            PAYT  Bulletin 3

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 PAYT  Continues  to  Grow
   Approximately 4,030 communities currently employ
 unit-based pricing, according to die latest report from
 Duke University. This represents a 16 percent increase in
 the number of PAYT communities since Duke began
 reporting this information in 1997. Duke gathers this
 data by contacting municipal, county, and state-level solid
 waste and recycling administrators, as well as private
 haulers. For a complete list of these communities, log on
 to the PAYT Web site at  .
Check It  Out

   The EPA PAYT Web site
keeps getting bigger and
better. Just added to the site
are two clips from the new
PAYT video, Pay-As-You-
Throw: A New Trend in
Sustainable Solid Waste
Management. They can be viewed at
 using either AVI
or RealPlayer. After viewing the clips, use the online
video order form on die same page to obtain your copy
of the video.
   Another new addition to the PAYT site is die events
page. Once a part of this Bulletin, descriptions of upcom-
ing PAYT lectures, workshops, and other events from
across the United States can now be found at
. Visit this page
often as it is updated periodically.
                   Attention  Coble

                   Directors!

    Do your community a great service and broadcast the
 PAYT video, Pay-As-You-Throw: A New Trend in
 Sustainable Solid Waste Management on your local cable
 station. The first part of the video provides a general
 introduction to PAYT for residents and others who may
 be unfamiliar with this type of program. The second part
 provides more detailed information on key design and
 operational issues surrounding PAYT.
    Obtaining and showing this video is very easy. EPA
~ has established a Jending library for community access
 and municipal stations. If you are interested in airing part
 or all of this video on your
 channel, EPA will loan you a
 copy of the tape in the for-
 mat of your choice for you
 to dub and play as often as
 you like. There is no charge
 to participate, except the
 cost of tape stock! To
 obtain an order form
 and/or more Information,
 call the PAYT Helpline
 at 888 EPA-PAYT.
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