Talking Trash

How Worcester's Pay-As-You-Throw Program Reduces Waste and Saves Money

I have often talked about the need for municipal government to adapt, whether it’s due to changes in technology, current events, or demographics. But there are several core constituent services that will always be basic, non-negotiable priorities. One of those is trash and recycling.

While it seems like a simple concept, sanitation actually requires a number of complex considerations, such as pickup logistics, which materials to accept, how to pay for it, etc. The factors that go into Worcester’s Pay-As-You-Throw (PAYT) program reflect that complexity, but I want to emphasize—especially if the math is difficult to digest in the video—that it has been an unequivocal success in reducing waste, increasing recycling, and decreasing costs.

First adopted in 1993, the PAYT program (a.k.a. the “yellow trash bags”) has reduced Worcester’s trash by 42% while increasing recycling by 92%. As a city, we went from generating 43,288 tons of trash in 1993 to 25,211 tons in 2022. That’s the equivalent of almost 2,500 garbage trucks worth of trash diverted from the incinerator. Over that same time frame, we saw the amount of recycling go from 800 tons in 1993 to 10,300 tons in 2022. We also know that the opposite effect can happen if a city or town scraps its PAYT program. For example, the Town of Shirley has seen a 28% increase in trash since stopping its program in 2018.

Worcester is also doing well compared to other cities. According to latest data from 2022, Worcester produces around 900 pounds of trash per household each year. That’s lower than Boston (1,400 pounds), Providence (2,600) and Springfield (2,200).¹² And among the 56 Massachusetts cities and towns that reported using a PAYT program and offering curbside pickup, Worcester ranks ninth for lowest trash per household.

So, the PAYT program is keeping waste out of the incinerator. At the same time, it’s keeping money in your pocket.

The money you spend on yellow trash bags isn’t simply the cost of the bag. That money ($1 for a small bag and $1.75 for a large bag) goes towards covering the costs of the city’s entire waste and recycling program. Here’s where the math from the video comes into play. Last fiscal year, Worcester’s total sanitation budget was $8.5 million. A net of $4 million of that was paid for by the sale of yellow trash bags, with the remainder paid for by taxes.

Now let’s assume for a minute that the PAYT program didn’t exist. Since 1993, Worcester would have generated over 580,000 more tons of trash, which would require $67 million more for sanitation over that span, or about $2.3 million per year. Without the PAYT program, we’d need to cover an annual $10.8 million sanitation budget entirely through taxes and fees.

PAYT is also more equitable than charging a flat fee for sanitation, which many municipalities without the program do. Worcester households cover a significant portion of their sanitation services based entirely on how much waste they personally produce. Furthermore, those flat fees in other cities and towns can cost households anywhere from $200 – $700 annually depending on the type of service the municipality operates. On average, Worcester households spend about $150 annually on sanitation between purchasing yellow trash bags and paying taxes.

All this data illustrates that the PAYT program is intended to be an efficient sanitation program that reduces waste and saves residents money. It also goes a long way towards the municipality’s goals as outlined in the Green Worcester Plan.

The first way is by countering climate change. Waste produces greenhouse gases from incineration and decomposition in landfills—not to mention the carbon emissions from gas-powered trucks to transport the trash. Since 1993, an estimated 1.4 million metric tons of carbon have been prevented from entering the atmosphere due to Worcester’s PAYT program.³ That’s the same as having 10,000 fewer passenger vehicles on the roads each year.

Second, PAYT is one of several ways in which the city is cutting down on the amount of trash it generates to meet its goal of Zero Waste.⁴ Another such initiative is partnering with Helpsy, a free home pickup clothing recycling collection service that keeps old and unwanted clothes out of the trash. To take it a step further, one of the strategies of the Green Worcester Plan is to develop a formal Zero Waste Master Plan (ZWMP) for the city, and we recently hired the city’s first ever Zero Waste Coordinator. As part of that planning process, the PAYT program will be further analyzed, with a range of improvements and other options being considered.

To date, PAYT and the city’s efforts to reduce waste has earned Worcester several recognitions, including a 2023 Casella Sustainability Leadership Award and an “Outstanding Solid Waste Program” award from the Central Massachusetts Municipal Recycling Council. Our demonstrated success also helped us receive an $84,500 Recycling Dividend Grant from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection.

My administration is committed to making Worcester a truly green, sustainable, and clean city. I would like to commend the departments of Public Works & Parks and Sustainability & Resilience for spearheading those efforts, and we have many more exciting initiatives to come under the Green Worcester Plan and ZWMP.

1. Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, Recycling & Solid Waste Data for Massachusetts Cities & Towns

2. Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation, How Is My City / Town Doing?

3. Based on calculations using the Environmental Protection Agency’s Waste Reduction Model

4. According to the Zero Waste International Alliance, Zero Waste is defined as “the conservation of all resources by means of responsible production, consumption, reuse, and recovery of products, packaging, and materials without burning and with no discharges to land, water, or air that threaten the environment or human health.”