Concord's Pay-as-you-Throw Has Early Success

By Phil Sletten on Wednesday, July 8, 2009.

Concord has joined forty-five other cities and towns in adopting a Pay-as-you-Throw program to reduce garbage and promote recycling.

And as NHPR’s Phil Sletten reports the program seems to be working.

The Pay-as-you-Throw program requires residents to purchase special trash bags for curbside pickup.

And General Services Deputy Director Phil Bilodeau says compliance through Monday and Tuesday was above ninety percent.

“From the other communities in New England that we sampled, that should improve over time.”

Because city residents now have to pay a fee for garbage bags, the program aims to boost recycling rates.

And Bob McManus, General Services’ business manager, says the amount of recycling on the curbside seems greater this week.

“We would expect that the recycling rates are gonna be way, way up.”

He also says trash volume is down thirty or forty percent, and officials have only caught one person illegally throwing trash into a dumpster.

For NHPR News, I’m Phil Sletten.

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