Pay as you throw is a no-go (for now)

SALISBURY — Charlie Kelley, chairman of the Salisbury-Sharon Transfer Station Recycling and Advisory Committee (TRAC), told the Salisbury Board of Selectmen Monday, March 1, that “no decisions have been made regarding station operations, nor will we be making any in the near future,� in response to recent publicity about the possibility of going to a “pay as you throw� system.

Kelley read a letter into the record stating that TRAC has been looking at alternatives for trash collection and disposal for several years, and listed some of the current concerns.

Each household in Sharon and Salisbury is required to buy an annual transfer station sticker, even if they use a hauler. Kelley said unpaid stickers are a major headache. Many residents still have not purchased a sticker.

The sticker fees pay for the operating costs at the transfer station.

He said that in the fiscal year 2008-09, there were 686 unpaid transfer station stickers between the two towns, which at the then-$60 sticker fee represented $41,160 in uncollected revenue.

And in this fiscal year (2009-10), as of Jan. 16, there were 873 unpaid stickers — 561 from Salisbury and 312 from Sharon. At the current $70 fee, that adds up to $61,110.

Kelley also said that while the recycling rate is good compared to other transfer stations in the region, there have not been any significant gains in recent years.

“We know there is a large amount of glass and metal recyclables being included in garbage bags� that go into the municipal solid waste hopper, for transportation to Hartford.

This is the most expensive trash to dispose of.

He said transfer station employees periodically open garbage bags to check for recyclables (and plan to do it more).

He mentioned one 19-pound bag containing nothing but glass bottles and a 12-pound bag containing seven and a half pounds of recyclable material, mostly paper.

“I sometimes wonder if the citizens realize they are breaking the laws of the state as they ‘toss it in the garbage.’�

Kelley told the selectmen that TRAC has several variables to consider at the moment: the construction of the new transfer station, the transition to new management under the newly created Salisbury-Sharon Resource Recovery Authority, the uncertainty as to the status of the Connecticut Resource Recovery Authority, and relations with the haulers that serve the two towns.

“I wanted to address this because people are getting riled up� over recent articles detailing presentations to TRAC and to the Salisbury and Sharon selectmen by Mike LaPorte of WasteZero, a North Carolina company that specializes in setting up pay as you throw programs.

First Selectman Curtis Rand said flatly that PAYT “is not on the table for the coming fiscal year.�

He added that the towns need to keep reminding residents to buy their stickers and said, “That kind of enforcement we will commit to.�