Price Increase of Yellow Bags
The Solid Waste department reports increases in the cost of collection, transportation, and disposal of residents’ trash. These increases have necessitated the department to review the revenue from the sale of the bags which covers these costs. But for a very minimal increase of .25 cents for a sleeve of large bags and .10 cents for small, there have been no increases to bag costs in a decade. A moderate increase will assure that much of the departmental expenses are covered by the sale of the yellow bags.
The Town of Stonington has announced that effective July 7th, 2023 the cost of official Stonington trash bags will increase. A sleeve of (5) large bags will increase from $7.25 to $9.00 and a sleeve of (5) small bags will increase from $4.50 to $6.00.
The Stonington Resource Recovery Authority, which governs the trash management of the Town, recognizes that the yellow bag (Pay-As-You-Throw) program is one of the Town’s most effective tools for reducing waste. A comprehensive recycling program offers free curbside collection of single stream and textile recycling to all households. The Pay-As-You-Throw program benefits those recycling, composting, and source reducing. The Authority recognizes the program as fair and equitable to residents as each household pays based on their use and so have an incentive to recycle more to reduce the number of yellow bags a household needs. The more trash you generate, the more you pay for yellow bags. The less you generate, the less you pay. Go to www.recyclect.com to learn what can be put in your recycle bin. The municipality saves on tonnage diverted from the waste stream from Pay-As-You-Throw and other programs offered to residents free of charge.
As an example, the curbside food scrap collection pilot program, made possible through a grant from the CT DEEP, has diverted over 75 tons of food waste from the amount of trash sent to the incinerator since February. Many residents are reporting having reduced yellow bag usage to 1 bag every 2-3 weeks! Residents are encouraged to participate in this free voluntary program to collect their food scraps in the provided green bags which are delivered to an anaerobic digester. All costs are covered by the grant. This is a 1-year pilot program. Data from the pilot program will be analyzed to determine its self-sustainability going forward. If you are not yet participating in the program, and wish to do so, you can pick up a 4-gallon lidded collection pail and 50 free bags at the Transfer Station or Solid Waste office in the Town Hall.