Recycling Program Saves City Millions

New recycling programs in Quincy have been a success, city officials said, after fiscal year-end results showed the city’s waste numbers down and recycling numbers up.

According to data from the Department of Public Works, the city disposed of 32,710 tons of garbage in fiscal 2008, which ended in June 2009, the last year of the previous trash collection system. This year, the city collected 29,302 tons.

In addition, recycling increased from 2008 to 2010, from 4,030 tons to 5,121 tons.

The changes result from a program that was implemented alongside Braintree and Weymouth in 2008, allowing residents to throw away all recyclables without separating them.

“When the program started, City officials distributed large recycling stickers and encouraged residents to attach the sticker to a regular-sized trash barrel for recyclable material … It was clear from that point, that the larger recycling containers – without required separation – were being filled up on a regular basis,” city officials said in a press release.

In addition to the new recycling program, implemented through Capitol Waste Services, the city has increased recycling with a pilot project in Ward 1 neighborhoods.

Done through the ”Energy Smart Quincy” program with the Massachusetts Energy Consumers Alliance, a grant enabled the city to distribute 3,000 32-gallon recycling barrels to a select area of residents, increasing recycling by 40 percent on the specified trash route.

“This is tremendous progress in a very short period of time, and it is a credit to our residents who are without question making a conscience decision to throw away less and recycle more,” said Mayor Thomas Koch in a press release. “[It] is good news for both the environment and our local finances.”

According to Quincy officials, it’s saving the city millions.

John Sullivan, trash and recycling manager at the Department of Public Works, said the city is saving a lot by throwing out less, which costs upwards of $90 a ton to dispose of, and recycling more, for which the city receives $10 a ton.

“It costs you money to throw away trash …that’s been my message for three years,” he said in an interview when the Energy Smart Quincy program began in December.

Back then, shortly before Sullivan took on the role as the city’s energy manager, he had a goal of decreasing garbage disposal by 10 percent.

Now that that the city has surpassed that goal, officials may carry the initiative further with more bins.

“The City will continue to study the results of the barrel program with the hope of eventually extending the program citywide if it is proved effective over a longer period of time,” officials said in a release.

The city plans to wait a full year to see the scope of the effects before investing in barrels for the whole city.

Although grant money isn’t available for these additional barrels, mayoral spokesman Christopher Walker said the city would look elsewhere for those funds.

“We would have to explore other options. The grant is essentially obligated at this point, so when that times comes, we’d be exploring,” Walker said. “It’s a situation where it’s a cost/benefit analysis, if the city feels we’ll be saving more money than the initial investment of providing the city for those barrels, it’s something we’ll seriously consider.”

Until then, Walker said, folks are encouraged to use their own household trash barrels to recycle goods.

In addition to increasing citywide recycling, Sullivan and others continue to focus on reminding residents of the importance of energy conservation.

In Sullivan’s new role, paid for by the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant, he is expected to reduce the city’s energy output by 20 percent in five years. Sullivan will be coordinating the city’s energy policy as well as monitoring and improving city building energy outputs to accomplish that goal.

Source: Boston.com
By Jessica Bartlett