00:00:06,500	S1:
Hello and welcome. Today we are inviting you to sit and listen to a waste reduction question and answer session. We have a group of people from the Hamilton Wenham Recycling Committee and my name is Carolyn Dan. I am from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection and I'm a regional recycling coordinator. And this year, the Town of Hamilton received a grant from Massachusetts DEP to help the town look at waste reduction options and ways to increase recycling. And so I've been working with the Hamilton Wenham Recycling Committee and providing them with resources and information and contacts in other towns. And with our study today or our our work today is a follow on from some work that was done by the League of Women Voters a couple of years ago, and the results of their study is available in the town library, and we're going to have Susan Wiltshire moderate the panel and ask questions, and the panelists will answer them and they will introduce themselves while we invite Susan to come take my seat.

00:01:16,170	S1:
Um.

00:01:16,900	S2:
Good evening. Good. Good day. My name is Heather Ford, and I'm a member of the Hamilton one. I'm recycling committee. I am a Hamilton resident.

00:01:24,769	S3:
And I'm grateful Clark have joined the committee, also a resident of Hamilton, and we hope that it is evening, morning, uh, night that this will be shown many times. So all of you will have a chance to find out how to recycle.

00:01:39,769	S4:
My name is Frances Grace, and I'm also a resident here in Hamilton. And I am a former recycle coordinator for ten years in the city of Salem.

00:01:53,099	S5:
Thank you for introducing yourselves. This is a very capable panel we have today, and I am going to be very pleased to play the role of an inquiring citizen. The first I've heard of Pay as You Throw, but I don't understand how that a waste reduction program differs from pay as you throw.

00:02:16,870	S4:
Well, we looked at the recycling committee, looked at several different types of programs. The traditional pay as you throw program requires residents to buy a special bag for every bag of trash that they generate. What is different with the waste reduction program is the town pays the taxes, pays for the residents to dispose of unlimited amounts of recyclables in one bag or barrel of trash per household. Each week. Households that need to dispose of additional trash must buy special town designated bags. Based on the experience of other towns, most residents will need few or no additional bags so there will be little or no additional cost. Two types of programs are similar, and that they both encourage residents to recycle compost more and discard less because it saves them more money.

00:03:11,400	S5:
Who decides for Hamilton whether we adopt this program?

00:03:15,199	S3:
Well, we've made a recommendation to the selectmen, but they are the ones who decide. They also set all fees. So we are hoping that they're going to recommend that the community take this on a trial basis and then vote on it. Probably next a year from now as to whether they want to make it official.

00:03:36,030	S5:
Why do we why do we need to change our program at all?

00:03:39,629	S2:
Well, you know, Susan, our current system is very old fashioned right now. Everybody is still back in the mindset of a number of years ago where you could just throw anything away. Most of our waste didn't have too many plastics in it, or any of the things that we now just throw away without even thinking. So people take their ways. Throw it away and put it on the curb and away it goes. Well, no longer do we use landfills. Now our waste has to be trucked long distances and it just cost us more. And those are our tax dollars that are being spent to truck it away. Um, so we are recommending a waste reduction program as a means to reduce the amount of waste that our town disposes of.

00:04:17,329	S5:
What do you see as the advantage of a waste reduction program?

00:04:21,629	S4:
The waste reduction program? Um, the two big benefits are more recycling and lower costs for the town. By giving each household a financial incentive to reduce that trash tonnage. The town will have fewer tons to dispose of and will save more tax dollars. Even better, there will be more recycling, which saves the town money.

00:04:44,930	S5:
What specific cost structure will be used for households in the proposed waste reduction program?

00:04:52,470	S3:
Well, the cost to the average citizen will be zero on every item that they recycle cans, glass, paper, etc. uh, if that goes into the recycle stream, it's no cost to them. There will be one barrel allowed that is free in the sense that the town pays for it in their hauling fees, but it won't be an outright charge to the town citizen. And then the actual cost will be in the form of any other trash that is produced over that one allowed, quote free barrel. And it'll it will be financed by the purchase of these bags somewhere between 1 and $3. That will. In fact, here's a bag that is large enough to line a trash bin. It will go inside the trash bin and your your solid waste will go into that bag and you will pay for the bag and however many bags you produce over the one barrel that is allowed at no outright cost will be the expense to the average community family member.

00:06:12,029	S5:
What's the price of the bag and won't stores mark them up and charge taxes in addition?

00:06:18,029	S2:
We haven't yet decided on the prices. Gradle said it'll be somewhere between $1.25 and probably $2 somewhere in that in that area, but that will all be determined later on once we get the program in place and there will be no markup. We will negotiate a contract with each one of the stores that will sell a bag. And the the Department of Revenue has determined that waste reduction bags are not taxable. So there will be no taxes on the bag. So the fee that we set is the fee that a resident would pay. And the incentive to the to the business is that they will draw more customers into their stores, and they will be happy to do that, because more customers means they will hopefully stay and shop for things other than waste reduction bags.

00:07:03,000	S5:
Thank you. Why shouldn't trash be paid for by all taxpayers on the tax rate, just as we pay for the schools?

00:07:11,500	S4:
Well, most taxpayers are willing to subsidize public education because they feel it is in the public interest. A system, a system that encourages residents to dispose of unlimited, unlimited amounts of trash is not in the public interest.

00:07:27,569	S5:
Why haven't other towns done this if it's such a good idea?

00:07:31,329	S3:
Actually, other towns have done this. In fact, a third of Massachusetts towns have already taken on a form of some kind of trash reduction program, and we have a number of neighboring towns that have done so. Boxford. Topsfield. Milton. Gloucester, Manchester, Sudbury, Concord. And we've looked at their experience and been convinced that it's really to our advantage to do so too.

00:08:02,370	S5:
We only set out about one barrel a week, but won't say a household who now sets out 3 or 4 barrels. Pay a lot more.

00:08:10,199	S2:
You know, Susan, initially they will until they sort of work within their family and change the way that they handle their trash within the household. For my family, originally we had 2 or 3 barrels a week, and we are now down to one barrel a week just by sort of concentrating and folding, you know, our paper and our cardboard boxes and for putting the taking the cans and the bottles out and putting them in our recycle bin, you can. It is possible to do it. But initially, until a family decides that they want to do this, they will have to pay the additional charge for any barrels over the one that the family is entitled to.

00:08:45,470	S5:
What evidence is there that a waste reduction program increases recycling.

00:08:51,029	S4:
Well, we have results from over 6000 programs around the country and actually 120 programs in the city of cities and towns in Massachusetts that show a consistent result more recycling in 25 to 35% less trash.

00:09:09,169	S5:
It sounds very complicated and perhaps inconvenient.

00:09:14,730	S3:
You want me to prove that it isn't? Actually, it's no different from what we're doing. It's just that you're going to pay for the extra barrel that you fill with solid waste. So. And hopefully the only complication will be making that decision every time you drop something into your trash bin or your wastebasket or whatever in your household, your kitchen basket that you will be maximizing. Reuse recycle materials in the recycle stream rather than putting it into the trash stream.

00:09:45,600	S5:
But how am I going to store all those recyclables?

00:09:48,669	S2:
Well, what I've done is I found that my blue bins were not enough. So I have now taken this. As you can see, I've labeled it with bars and cans, also recycle on top. And then when I put it out on the curb, I put it out with my blue bins so that the hauler will notice it's right there. These stickers are available from the DPW so any family can go down and get them. So there are ways to make it a little more convenient at your house.

00:10:13,269	S5:
Now what is actually recyclable?

00:10:16,029	S3:
Well, let's look at our our supply here on the table. Maybe Heather can help me, but certainly anything that let's start out with paper. Your envelopes. Paper that you're throwing away when you sort your mail. In fact, put a paper grocery bag next to your waste basket and fill that with whatever you're going to throw away. This, if you break it down, can also go into that bag. Um, This is recyclable. Even your office paper with the plastic on it. They will accept that. Um, now we don't have a sample of all the catalogs. Yes, catalogs. Um. The cans. The plastics that are hard. Plastics. Uh, the, um, bottles, glass, all of those things can go into the recycle stream. And your cardboard, of course. Uh, hopefully you're going. Ah. Regulations. Now say you have to break it down into two by two amounts. But if you want, break it down and just take it to the roll off behind town hall. You don't have to cut it up and we'll get paid for it. But certainly your cardboard, all your paper, your glass can and tin, etc. can be recycled.

00:11:34,330	S5:
Gradle. An extra question about that. Can you mix bottles and cans? Can you? Do you have to. How much? What clean do they have to be? Can you take. Do you have to take the little circles off the top of the bottles?

00:11:45,669	S3:
No, you don't have to take the circles off, but you do need to have things clean. So if you let's say you have a pizza box that has the little round, um, uh, floor to it that gets some food on it that you won't be able to recycle. But the box itself, if it's clean, just break it down and again, put it into your recyclable materials. And, uh, anything that goes into recycle, we expect you're not going to throw away dirty. In fact, we've just learned that hills will now take flowerpots. Um, you know, the plastic ones. Just be sure that they're clean. Uh, seed starting kits, all of those. Just be sure that they're clean. That's hard. Plastic and, incidentally, plastic that is, um, slippery. That is, uh, is not hard. It's sort of like paper. Hopefully you are are collecting that, combining it all into one plastic bag and then taking it to your grocery store and dropping it in the large barrel that's just inside the door. That's not to go out with the recyclable. These bins are the blue bins. We're expecting that you're going to take that and let the the grocery industry recycle it, which they will happily do because I'm sure they're making money on it.

00:13:05,029	S5:
Thank you. Where will I get bags?

00:13:07,629	S2:
Um, as we talked about a little bit earlier, we will have agreements with local businesses, you know, in downtown Hamilton, maybe some other businesses on the edges in Beverly or Ipswich. You know, we'll try to make it as convenient as we can for all the residents.

00:13:22,730	S5:
If extra trash costs extra money, won't some people just throw their trash in the woods or other illegal places?

00:13:29,399	S4:
Well, as a committee, we've talked to other towns to see how they've handled this, and we know that enforcement in finding the violators works. If we find illegally dumped bags of trash. We will open them and determine the owner and then find them. The lesson learned in other towns is that prompt enforcement with fines works and will stop the the problem.

00:13:52,370	S5:
Thank you. If I own an apartment building, who's responsible for the cost?

00:13:59,370	S3:
Well, the apartment owner has to make sure that the tenant is doing what is proper, using the right bags and so forth. And the cost arrangement is something that the landlord and the tenant will have to negotiate. If the tenant leaves with trash behind, the landlord's going to be held responsible. So it's up to the landlord to educate their renters.

00:14:25,470	S5:
How will businesses be affected?

00:14:27,799	S2:
Well, in the town of Hamilton, all dwellings, whether they're residential or commercial, pay the same rate. So they are entitled to whatever rules we impose on residences also get imposed on businesses so they will be able to put out one barrel, just like every household, and then anything above that they will have to pay for it. We are trying to encourage them to recycle. The DPW has been working with them quite a bit, going around to the different businesses and helping to educate them on how to break down their cardboard. Still more work to be done, but in general, most of the businesses are aware of it and are starting to comply.

00:15:03,000	S5:
What will happen to the money collected under this program?

00:15:06,500	S4:
Well, what the committee has talked about is recommending that the selectmen established an enterprise fund. An enterprise fund demands a complete accounting to the voters of the cost and the revenues. Annually, a report is presented to the rest, to the residents of the fund. Performance. Any shortfalls in revenues would be covered by the general funds. Conversely, should there be excess revenues, in other words, more income than expenses, the money cannot be taken out of the enterprise fund and must be used to offset future expenses.

00:15:41,370	S5:
What if I find it inconvenient to buy bags?

00:15:45,570	S3:
Well, you won't find it inconvenient if you buy a whole lot. One time around, it's simply a matter of adding it to your grocery cart when you go and buy your groceries. And you probably will get. Let's see. These are the these are the bags. And this is pretty much how they come. There are a couple of of ways in which the the suppliers offer them to us. It's not too inconvenient to add this to your your groceries when you're making a regular trip you would buy. This is ten bags, I believe this is five bags. Um, so hopefully you're going to think ahead enough to have them on hand and think even more clearly to not have to use them more than you absolutely have to.

00:16:35,000	S5:
What about recycling in the schools?

00:16:37,470	S2:
Well, we are a joint Hamilton one and recycling committee, and we have a joint school system and we have been working with the schools. They do have some ways right now. They separate their solid waste from their cardboard and paper. At the high school level. They do have a recycling committee or a recycling club. I guess that does take their cans and bottles out to the curb. I know there's one at the middle school, and I know that they're trying to work with the elementary schools. We, the League of Women Voters, who kicked this all off, is holding a poster contest. And they will. They're trying to encourage elementary age students to be thinking about ways to recycle, which then brings the conversation into the family and into the household, because recycling is definitely a family, a family effort.

00:17:25,299	S5:
So who wins with this program?

00:17:28,470	S3:
We all win. Hopefully, uh, we're we're expecting that you're going to get a real lift out of being able to do something for the environment, something for your town, and something for yourself in terms of being a better citizen and doing what's right. In fact, just as a way of encouragement, um, you should know that in the past year we have, just through voluntary recycling, cut down our recycling by 150 tons of recycled materials. That's 6% of our town's, uh, produced trash. Um, we are now up to. Let's see, we've saved $6,000 in disposal fees, uh, just since April of of last year. And we've saved something like 7600 trees through our paper recycling. Uh, there, it's it's nothing but a good story. And we've started Did asking you to do it voluntarily. And we think that by making it mandatory in the sense that you'll be paying for anything extra. We'll have a spectacular story to tell. We're hoping to be up to 10% by the end of this, this year's recycling records, and maybe we'll be joining the other communities that have instituted a program like this. They are recycling now, somewhere between 25 and 45% of their trash. So let's see if we can't join them and and do even better than they do. Recycle more of our trash than we have before.

00:19:12,730	S5:
Thank you very much. And thank all of you for some very complete answers to my questions.

00:19:17,670	S6:
Thank you.