Pay-as-you-throw Recycling Program Reviewed in R.I.

It’s an interesting concept: charge residents only for the trash they throw away while making recyclables free. And, according to a Providence Journal article, a statewide mandatory program was considered by the Rhode Island state legislature at a recent recycling summit. The summit was spurred by the fact that the Ocean State’s landfill is expected to need a $100 million expansion in two years if recycling rates do not increase.

Recycling is one of the few steps homeowners can take to protect the environment without assuming much (if any) costs. One must simply be knowledgeable about what can be recycled and make the effort to separate those items from regular household trash. There are no expensive solar panels to install or light bulbs to replace; just a little time and reading

The pay-as-you-throw plan is one excellent way to encourage recycling since financial savings is probably one of the best motivational tools, especially in a weak economy. The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection even has a Web site devoted to the program. It has been implemented successfully in many towns in New England, while others like Whitman, Mass. are considering creating a program.

But encouraging residential recycling is only part of the problem. In Rhode Island, business and government have worse recycling rates than residences (4 percent, according to the same Journal story).

While this rate is abysmal, the business/government rate is shocking as they manage much larger recyclable volumes of waste than a homeowner does. Therefore, it should be more cost effective for them to sort trash and recycle as much as possible.

Clearly, with rates that low, there has been no incentive or mandate for them to improve recycling standards. At the same recycling summit – the first in state history – experts from environmental and waste disposal agencies advised lawmakers to enact stricter standards and improve enforcement of existing ones.

Only time will tell if additional commercial and residential recycling programs are implemented or more and more trash continues to pile up at landfills.