By James T. Corley and Sharyn Dickerson

With the WasteExpo once again in Atlanta, we are honored to acquaint you with our Pay-As-You-Throw (PAYT) program and share with you our accomplishments and lessons learned in the PAYT arena.

Athens, home to the University of Georgia with a student enrollment of 30,000, is 70 mi. northeast of Atlanta. Serving a total population of 100,000 in the smallest land-based county in Georgia (about 122 mi.²), the Athens–Clark County Solid Waste Department faces significant issues in our community. As a unified government—in 1991, the governments of the City of Athens and the County of Clarke merged—we have been able to accomplish a great deal in the area of solid waste management.

How PAYT Evolved

PAYT fee systems are certainly not new. These types of programs have been around since at least the 1950s. The goal of PAYT is to charge for individual use of garbage services. PAYT mirrors fee systems used by other utilities, such as water, gas, cable, and electricity.

We began developing a comprehensive solid waste–reduction plan for our community in November 1992. Throughout the development of our plan, key community leaders, including elected officials and a Solid Waste Citizen Advisory Committee, met to discuss and review work completed and to provide direction.

The cornerstone of our plan is the Recovered Materials Processing Facility (RMPF), a public/private partnership. The private vendor, FCR Inc. of Charlotte, NC, owns and operates the RMPF, and we own the property where the facility is located and oversee the operating contract. The RMPF, and the development of a comprehensive solid waste ordinance provided the support necessary to implement our PAYT programs in September 1995.

We provide exclusive solid waste management services to 8,600 households and 550 small commercial (curbside) establishments located within the Urban Services District. It is our opinion that to have a successful PAYT program, it is imperative to provide convenient and user-friendly waste-disposal alternatives, such as recycling.

Our Programs

Residential PAYT. Our residential PAYT program requires residents to select, through a subscription process, the size and number of garbage cans they need to be collected each week. Based on their selection, residents are billed monthly on their water/utility bill. Residents provide the can(s) on which staff places the authorized decal(s).

Residential Recycling. Residents place their recyclables at the curb for pickup on the same day as their weekly garbage pickup. We provide each resident with a blue and a green 18-gal. recycling bin. Residents may commingle recyclable paper items and place them in the blue bin. Likewise, residents commingle recyclable bottles and cans and place them in the green bin.

Commercial Curbside PAYT. Our commercial PAYT program requires businesses to select, through a subscription process, the garbage-collection frequency they need. Customers are charged a monthly fee according to their selection. This fee also covers the cost of recycling-collection services described below. Customers are required to place their garbage in authorized plastic bags with Athens–Clarke County’s logo imprinted on them. These bags cost $1 each. The bag fee covers the cost of the bag, disposal of the bagged waste, and some administrative expenses.

Commercial Curbside Recycling. Commercial customers may place their recyclables on the sidewalk in front of their business for pickup. Recyclables must be stored in transparent plastic bags for collection. Customers are instructed to keep commingled recyclable paper and commingled recyclable bottles and cans separate by placing them in different bags. Recycling pickups are scheduled three times a day, seven days a week.

Funding Our Programs

Prior to unification, residential and commercial waste and recycling collection services were supported entirely through property taxes. After unification and between fiscal years (FY) 1992 and 1993, waste-collection services transitioned to a fixed monthly user fee. In 1995, these services were changed to the current PAYT fee system.

The cost to process collected recyclables is funded by the Landfill Enterprise Fund. We view these expenses as an "opportunity cost." Educational support is also funded through the landfill for the same reason. Athens-Clarke has a contract with FCR Inc. to pay for processing these recyclables at their RMPF in Athens.

Lessons Learned

We have learned a great deal from implementing PAYT. If we had it to do all over again, we would:

• Implement one PAYT program at a time. We implemented both residential and commercial curbside PAYT programs and their respective recycling programs at the same time. Although the programs have been successful, the first six months after implementation were hectic and stressful.
• Hire a compliance officer and a customer-service representative before program implementation. Customer noncompliance was a direct result of the new PAYT programs. Problems ranged from customers using improper collection containers to customers bagging trash and trying to pass it off as recyclables.
• Spend more time training employees. Prior to the implementation of PAYT, our collection crews were instructed to collect everything set out by our customers. After PAYT was implemented, however, our crews were directed not to collect waste that did not comply with program guidelines. We learned that our crews were worried that they would be reprimanded if they didn’t collect all of the waste.

• Develop a comprehensive solid waste compliance plan.

Summary

By implementing PAYT in our community, Athens-Clarke has accomplished the following:

• Our customers receive a bill that accurately reflects their individual use of garbage services.
• Our customers no longer subsidize the cost of waste services.
• The average monthly residential waste disposed per household has decreased 48.85% from 171.99 lb./household/month in FY 1992 to 102 lb./household/month in FY 1998. A similar comparison for commercial waste is not available.

In conclusion, it has been our experience that residents and commercial businesses prefer PAYT fee systems to fixed monthly user fees and/or tax levies, especially when alternative disposal options, such as recycling, are made available to them. PAYT is, after all, a more fair way to charge for services.

MSW
May / June, 2000