Population:
Type of Community:
Type of Program:
Program Start Date:
'We have not only
reduced the amount
of trash sent to the
landfill, but also
generated an
enormous amount of
civic pride in our
efforts to do
something positive
for our community
environment."
—Rick Elliot, Mayor
EPA530-F-97-007g
PAY-AS-YOU-THROW SUCCESS STORIES
Mount Vernon, Iowa
3,700
Suburban
Tags
July 1991
Paying for one's waste has brought home to
each of us a growing awareness of the full
lifecycle costs of "throwing it out,"
Getting Started: Why Pay-As-You-Throw?
Mount Vernon is a small, attractive college
community in eastern Iowa, home to profes-
sional commuters as well as college staff.
The city's income level ranks above average
for the state. In July 1991, the city began to
charge directly for the collection of residen-
tial trash, bulky items, grass clippings, and
garden waste. At the same time, bins were
distributed to begin curbside collection of
materials for recycling. We expected these
two steps to work together. Charging for
each container of trash provided the finan-
cial incentive to move material from trash
containers into recycling bins—the city
would then contract to collect this recycling
material free of direct charge.
How Does It Work?
The city's pay-as-you-throw system
works quite simply.
Households purchase
$1.75 tags at city hall ' i
or one of several
stores. As a public
service, stores sell the
tags with no markup,
The price for collec-
tion is one tag for
each container, which
must be no more than
30 gallons or 40
pounds, and multiple tags for bulky items.
Homeowners also receive a $7 solid waste
bill monthly. The city discounts the monthly
fee for households defined as low income
under the school lunch program.
While the revenue from tag sales roughly cov-
ers the cost of trash collection and landfill fees,
the monthly billing finances the "free of
charge" collection of recycling material, leaves,
and brush. Residents say tags are a fair way to
pay for trash disposal, and the combination of
tags and monthly fees provides a steady rev-
enue to the city.
Why Tags?
The city council appointed the Reduction
and Recycling Committee to develop a solid
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waste program. We spent over a year
researching the experiences of other
communities and consulting experts,
and eventually recommended tags for
waste collection to accompany curbside
recycling. Tags cost little to print, permit
residences to continue using their con-
tainers within the volume and weight
limits, adhere securely at all tempera-
tures, are convenient for participating
merchants to handle, and can easily be
removed when the trash is collected.
Stealing of tags has not been a problem
in this residential community.
Success: Increased Waste
Reduction and Recycling
Pay-as-you-throw played a major role in
motivating waste reduction and nearly
doubling recyling. The city estimates that
the trash the typical resident sent to the
landfill decreased by nearly 40 percent,
from 45 pounds per week in 1990 to 27
pounds in 1995. In addition, requiring a
tag for each container of grass clippings
and garden waste has nearly eliminated
the collection of these materials. The total
reduction of residential trash and all yard
waste per household exceeds the goal of
50 percent waste reduction the state leg-
islature has established for the year 2000.
Dumping, subject to a $1000 fine in
Mount Vernon, has not been a problem.
Altogether, by recycling and reducing
trash, and by leaving grass cuttings on
the lawn or composting it, the average
household saved $47 last year in fewer
tags purchased, a total saving of some
$46,000 for our 980 households. At 9
pounds per household per week, Mount
Vernon leads all 17 cities in Linn County
in recycling.
In addition to putting more into recy-
cling bins, residents of Mount Vernon
have reduced waste in various ways: 1)
recycling appliances; 2) recycling materi-
als the city does not accept at drop-off
facilities in Cedar Rapids and places of
employment that recycle these items; 3)
backyard composting of organic wastes;
4) purchase of reuseable rather than dis-
posable materials; and 5) more yard
sales. Much of this additional recycling
and reduction is doubtless motivated by
the tags that residents must purchase to
send trash to the landfill. We believe
that such incentives would also work
with less expensive drop-off recycling
programs in other cities.
As Mount Vernon's mayor, Rick Elliot,
says: "Our program has been very suc-
cessful due to the initial involvement of
a large number of citizens, continued
expansion of recycling opportunities,
community education and ownership of
the program, and a very civic-minded,
cooperative recycling and refuse vendor.
This program works and it works well."
How Mount Vernon's Program
Could Be Even Better
The major challenge inherent in any
reduction and recycling program is
informing the public. The city needs to
do better at keeping households cur-
rent on changes in the recycling pro-
gram. One successful example is an
information packet prepared by the
Recycling and Reduction Committee
that explained to households how, with
reasonably frequent mowing, grass cut-
tings left to decompose produce a
healthier lawn. Informing households
about alternative ways to deal with
wastes goes hand in hand with pay-as-
you-throw to maximize the effective-
ness of the financial and environmental
incentives.
Mount Vernon's success story was compiled by Don Cell, Chair of the Reduction and
Recycling Committee. For more information on Mount Vernon's pay-as-you-throw
program, call Bluestem Solid Waste Agency at (319) 398-1278.
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