Population:
 Type of Community:
    Type of Program:
 Program Start Date:

 Two years after the
  program started, a
city councilman who
   had voted against
    the new program
 came up to me in a
    local store with a
smile on his face and
      simply said 'You
      know,  you were
  right.' Then  I knew
    the  program was
       really working.
                                                                                   EPA530-F-97-007a
                        PAY-AS-YOU-THROW  SUCCESS   STORIES
                         PoqUOSOn,    Virginia
11,500

Suburban

Bags

July 1992
 With pay-as-you-throw, we've had the
largest  amount  of recyclables collected
          in our  nine-community regional
        recycling  program for four years,
                        Getting Started: Why Pay-As-You-Throw?
In the fall of 1991, we decided to shut down
a very successful drop-off recycling center
and join a regional curbside program the
next spring. Our main reason for going with
the curbside program was that we knew we
could get better citizen participation and
further increase recycling. Because of the
success of the drop-off program, we were
asked by the city council to review the city
trash program and develop a plan to
improve it.
Our group was made up of about a dozen
interested citizens, two city employees, and
two city councilmen. One of the first things
we did was to develop the following mission
statement: "To review every aspect of waste
management in Poquoson to maximize
REDUCTION, REUSE, and RECYCLING,
and to recommend ways to accomplish  this
with the minimum cost
to  the taxpayer."
This statement
was read at the
start of every
meeting to make
sure we stayed
focused on our
agreed-upon goal.
After discussing all
                types of different programs, we decided to
                focus on a fairly new system that was volume-
                based and where people paid for the amount
                of trash they discarded, rather than a flat-fee
                system.

                Bringing the Opposition  on  Board
                We called and talked to people involved
                with these different programs  and found
                out what problems and successes they
                were having.  We eventually ended up with
                two  three-inch binders full of information.
                After many meetings and sometimes heated
                discussions, we were ready to submit our
                basic recommendations to the city council
                and the public. At the public hearing, seven
                people talked against the
  .







-------
plan, and the city council seemed split
on the issue. The word "change" is
usually not well accepted in Poquoson.
We invited the seven speakers against
our plan to join our committee  and
work with  us to  develop a final recom-
mendation. In the end, the six that
joined  us supported the final plan.

Bags, Tags, or Cans?
Another big question was: Do we use
bags, stickers, or containers? Our
research showed that stickers are being
counterfeited in  one city and that there
is no effective way to control bag size.
Containers required a large, upfront
capital cost, and  we wanted to develop
a program that required no additional
cost to the city.  Furthermore, we are a
very windy city—and typically after a
trash pickup empty trash cans roll all
over the neighborhoods!  Since  all of
our trash was being sent to a waste-to-
energy (WTE) plant and not a landfill,
plastic bags were not a negative as far
as disposal was concerned.  We decid-
ed to use  plastic bags.

How Best To Distribute
the Bags?
Although many cities sell their bags from
city office  locations, this puts a big bur-
den on city personnel and can be incon-
venient for citizens. We talked with all
our grocery, drug, and convenience
stores and set up a program in which
they would sell the bags and turn over
all the proceeds to the city after they
were sold. In other words, they would
make no profit on selling the bags, but
also would have no investment in them.
It was pointed out to them that this
would be a community service.

Spreading the Word
The next step was informing the public
of the new program, how it would
work, and when it would start. We pre-
pared news releases for our local
papers, wrote articles for the city
newsletter, and made a videotape of the
program using local talent that was then
shown on the city public access channel.
We also trained speakers about the
subject and made them available to
any groups that were interested.

"We're number one
every time"
We are  part of a regional recycling pro-
gram with nine other cities and counties.
Because of the way our trash program
encourages recycling, our city has had
the largest amount of recyclables collect-
ed per house, per month for the entire
four years we have been  in the  program.
We're not number one most of the
time, we're number one every time.
Poquoson's success story was compiled by Bob Kerlinger, Recycling Committee Chair,
      868-3779.

-------