Nature Notes: Stonington’s trash program should be used as a model

John Phetteplace, director of solid waste, checks on operations at part of Stonington’s Transfer Station. (Photo by Bill Hobbs)

Published March 02. 2022 3:30PM — The Day
By Bill Hobbs, Special to the Day

In Stonington, we’re fortunate to put our garbage and unwanted items out on the street once a week, and it magically disappears. At least it seems that way.

What’s certain, though, is Stonington has found a creative and affordable way to serve the needs of the community. And if you follow the collection trail, there’s an interesting story behind our trash removal and the capable men and women who provide this unusual and complex service.

The trash removal program adopted by Stonington is called pay-as-you-throw (PAYT), or unit-based pricing, meaning residents pay only for the trash they throw away.

This innovative program, promoted by the state, has helped reduce residential waste and saved Stonington an estimated $7.4 million in hauling fees since its inception, according to John Phetteplace, Stonington’s director of solid waste and the person who implemented the program 30 years ago. Here’s how it works:

Once a week, Stonington provides curbside collection of household trash and recyclables. Residents must buy town-approved yellow bags from local merchants (They cost about $1.50 per bag) and use them for disposing of household trash, while all other recyclables, which are accepted without charge, are placed in a blue plastic bin provided by the town.

“One thing I like to point out is there are residents in other towns that pay $33 per month for someone to pick up their trash,” Phetteplace explained.

“But in Stonington, if you generate one yellow bag per week, you’re paying maybe $1.50 a week, times four weeks, or $6 a month for curbside collection, and that’s it,” he said.

Surprisingly, Stonington is the only town in southeastern Connecticut that has a pay-per-bag curbside collection program, and one of a handful of communities in the entire state to offer this convenient service.

For example, in Groton, Portland and Killingly, residents must contract with a private hauler to have their trash and recyclables removed. In Mansfield, residents choose what size garbage can they wish to use. Five different sizes are available, from 35 gallons to 160 gallons, then the town bills residents for collection services, with fees ranging from $45-$160 per quarter.

In East Lyme, residents pay for their trash and recycling needs out of general taxes.

Why aren’t more towns adopting PAYT? Phetteplace believes it’s a political issue.

“It’s not because PAYT doesn’t work. It’s because there’s that mentality that trash is paid for out of my taxes. And if you implement a program like PAYT, then you’re taking more money away from me,” he theorizes.

Phetteplace is a strong advocate of PAYT because he believes the program changes a resident’s behavior, making them more conscious of what they throw away.

He said Stonington residents currently generate about 380 pounds per person per year in waste, whereas residents in other nearby towns, who do not have a PAYT program, generate about 700 pounds per person per year. Why?

“With PAYT, people are paying attention,” Phetteplace believes, adding, “Once you’re paying attention to how much your trash costs, you say to yourself, I don’t want to go through six (yellow) bags a week.”

Soft-spoken, friendly and very knowledgeable about solid waste, Phetteplace went to work in Stonington’s Planning Department in 1988, as an intern. Two years later, a recycling coordinator position became available, the Town offered it to him, and Phetteplace grabbed it.

“Those were the days when we were handing out blue plastic boxes and teaching people how to recycle.” Phetteplace spent the next year and a half learning about recycling.

One of the goals in solid waste management, Phetteplace said, is to do everything possible to reduce a community’s total tonnage of trash collected and hauled away to an incinerator. In Stonington’s case, the incinerator is in Lisbon, 35 miles away.

In the last fiscal year, ending June 2021, for example, Stonington’s hauler, F.E. Crandall Disposal of Ledyard, collected 11,435 tons of trash and brought it to Lisbon for $71 per ton.

Thankfully, Stonington is reimbursed $12 per ton by the Southeastern Connecticut Regional Resources Recovery Authority, an organization created to implement long-term solutions for municipal solid waste, recycling, and other waste issues.

Still, $59 per ton is costly, and getting ever more expensive, Phetteplace said.

To help lighten the load, as it were, Phetteplace said his department has two more arrows in its quiver. They are textile recycling and plans to implement a curbside food waste program.

The textile recycling program, adopted by Stonington in early 2020, allows residents to get pink plastic bags, free of charge, from the Town Hall’s Solid Waste Department and use them for unwanted clothing disposal, then toss the bags on the street during regular trash days.

Interestingly, the discarded clothes do not get hauled away to Lisbon. Instead, F.E. Crandall takes the pink bags – about 50 a week — to a recycling center, where the clothes can be sold and turned into either wiping rags, processed back into fibers to make new products, or saved and given to charitable organizations.

In 2021, Phetteplace estimates his department saved $8,000 in tipping or hauling fees due to this convenient, curbside program.

Finally, Phetteplace recently submitted a grant to adopt a curbside food waste program for Stonington.

He said food makes up about 30 percent of our trash by volume, even more by weight. And if we can subtract that element from the trash that’s hauled to Lisbon, it would be a “huge savings to our residents and budgets.”

Phetteplace said the food would be taken to a separate composting facility, and possibly begin this spring.

Let’s hope Phetteplace gets the grant. It’ll be a win/win for all of us, including the environment.

Bill Hobbs lives in Stonington, writes a nature column for The Day, and can be reached for comments at whobbs246@gmail.com