>gram Snapshot
u-Throw:
A Cooling Effect on Climate Change
" Pay-As-You-Throw
aligns economic and
environmental priorities
in the same direction, so
that they work to support
each other instead of
being at odds."
Richard Denison
Senior Scientist
Environmental Defense
Pay-As-You-Throw gives individuals
an incentive to generate less trash
and recycle more.
Pay-As-You-Throw (PAYT) is an economic incentive program that
encourages residents to reduce the amount of waste they gener-
ate and to recycle more. The benefits of this program go beyond
the obvious advantages of generating less waste. The manufac-
ture and distribution of products and the subsequent manage-
ment of municipal solid waste (MSW) contribute to the formation
of greenhouse gases. To lower greenhouse gas emissions from
these actions, as well as for other environmental benefits, EPA is
encouraging waste prevention and recycling (jointly referred to as
waste reduction) through the PAYT Outreach Initiative.
What is PAYT?
PAYT programs break with tradition by ensuring that households see and feel
the cost of waste disposal services. Under a traditional system, residents pay
indirectly for these services through their property taxes or through a flat fee.
With PAYT, residents pay directly for trash services based on the amount of
waste they throw away—similar to the way they pay for electricity, gas, and
other utilities.
When consumers pay for every bag or can of waste they generate, they are
typically motivated to recycle more and look for creative ways to prevent
waste in the first place. In communities that implement PAYT, overall waste
disposal can decline by 14 to 27 percent on average. In addition, recycling
rates typically increase by between 32 and 59 percent.
Some residents in PAYT communities change their behavior in other significant
ways. While shopping, they are more likely to purchase items in bulk and to
select products with the least amount of unnecessary packaging. Rather than
throw items away, a PAYT household is likely to look first for ways to reuse
these goods or give them away, as charitable donations, for example. Rather
than bag yard trimmings and leaves, households might choose instead to
compost these materials in their backyards.
How Does PAYT Help Reduce
Greenhouse Gas Emissions?
PAYT programs are based on a simple premise: trash services are not free. One
important cost of solid waste, in addition to its other environmental effects, is
climate change. Whenever products are made, distributed, and disposed of,
greenhouse gases are released and contribute to climate change. Community
PAYT programs—which spur residents to prevent and recycle more waste—can
reduce greenhouse gas emissions significantly.
When we reduce, reuse, and recycle products, we decrease the greenhouse gas
emissions associated with making, distributing, and disposing of these products.
For example, when we buy in bulk, we purchase less packaging. That means
lower energy requirements for manufacturing. It means less waste that might
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create methane emissions in land-
fills, and, if paper products are at
issue, it means more trees standing
in the forest to absorb greenhouse
gases from the atmosphere.
Can the Climate
Change Benefits
of PAYT be
Measured?
Yes! To help quantify the climate
change benefits of waste reduction
programs such as PAYT, EPA conduct-
ed a comprehensive study of the rela-
tionship between solid waste man-
agement and climate change. The
study estimated the greenhouse gas
emissions associated with managing
major commodity types in the MSW
stream. The study resulted in the
development of greenhouse gas emis-
sion factors that can be used to cal-
culate the climate change benefits of
various waste management practices.
To analyze the specific climate
change benefits of PAYT programs,
EPA used these greenhouse gas
emission factors in combination
with results of a PAYT study con-
ducted by researchers at Duke
University. The Duke study analyzed
program statistics from 212 PAYT
communities across the country and
calculated the average amount of
per capita waste reduction experi-
enced by these communities. EPA
then calculated the per capita cli-
mate change impact of PAYT using
this average PAYT waste reduction
percentage and the greenhouse gas
emission factors.
EPA estimates that for each person
participating in a PAYT program,
annual greenhouse gas emissions are
reduced by an average of 0.085 met-
ric tons of carbon equivalent (MTCE,
the basic unit of measure for green-
house gases). This means that a
community of 100,000 people could
potentially reduce annual green-
house gas emissions by 8,500 MTCE
by implementing a PAYT program.
This calculation is based on the
assumption that residents in PAYT
communities recycle a mix of the
most common recyclable materials
(e.g., plastic bottles, newspapers,
steel and aluminum cans).
How Can I
Measure
Greenhouse
Gas Emission
Reductions?
Along with the more obvious recy-
cling and waste prevention impacts
of PAYT, measuring its climate
change benefits can help describe a
program's full environmental advan-
tages to elected officials, residents,
and other stakeholders. Also, waste
reduction programs such as PAYT can
play an integral part in a communi-
ty's climate change action plan.
Here's how you can calculate the
potential climate change benefits of
your PAYT program:
Use the National Average. If you
wish to use the national average for
greenhouse gas reductions, you can
multiply the number of program par-
ticipants by 0.085 MTCE as illustrat-
ed in the example above. The result-
ing number is the estimated average
annual reduction in greenhouse
gases for your program.
Use Local Data. If you wish to
obtain an estimate tailored to your
community's specific PAYT program,
you can apply your own data by
using EPA's WAste Reduction Model
(WARM). This easy-to-use spread-
sheet applies the same greenhouse
gas emission factors mentioned
above to your community's specific
waste management situation. Please
note that in order to use WARM, you
will need to have data on the
amount of waste your community
generated and reduced both before
and after PAYT was implemented.
WARM is available on EPA's Climate
Change and Waste Web site at
www.epa.gov/mswclimate.
Should Your
Community
Consider PAYT?
If your community's planners are
looking for ways to get residents to
put more recyclables out at the curb
and generate less trash, then the
answer is probably yes. The addi-
tional climate change benefits
enjoyed by PAYT communities show
that it can be an environmentally
sustainable way to manage our
nation's solid waste.
For more information on climate change
and waste reduction, including EPA's study
on greenhouse gases and waste management,
access EPA's Web site at www.epa.gov/mswclimate.
To order EPA's tool kit for planners interested
in implementing PAYT, as well as a video, fact
sheets, guidebooks, and other materials, call
the PAYT Helpline toll free at 888 EPA-PAYT.
Or find it all online at www.epa.gov/payt.
Solid Waste and
Emergency Response
(5306W)
* 1
EPA 530-F-03-008
March 2003
www.epa.gov/mswclimate
Recycled/Recyclable
Printed with Vegetable Oil-Based Inks
on Recycled Paper
(Minimum 50% Postconsumer)
Process Chlorine Free
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