This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.
01/15/2020 11:01 PMBy now, many of you have either heard or read about the garbage and waste issue that many of Connecticut’s municipalities are facing. Over a third of Connecticut’s cities and towns dispose of their waste and recyclables at a trash-to-energy plant in Hartford that will be de-commissioned in about two years. What then? There’s currently a proposal on the table to renovate that plant, which the City of Hartford opposes. Even if the renovation were to occur, the cost of waste disposal would be nearly triple from what it was just a few years ago based upon the proposals received by the Materials Innovation Recycling Authority (MIRA), the quasi-public agency that operates the Hartford plant.
If a renovation doesn’t occur, Old Saybrook’s garbage will likely be trucked out of state to the midwest to be buried in a landfill at considerable expense, and with a large carbon footprint. Old Saybrook can do better, as can the State of Connecticut. Reduce, re-use, recycle: That needs to be the call to action for our town to become a leader on this issue. We need to reduce the waste we produce by re-using what we’re able to and recycling more items that currently end up in the waste stream. While there hasn’t been an active a market for recyclables in recent years, we currently don’t pay to dispose of recycled material. (Of course, this also may change in the next few years.)
Old Saybrook’s cost to dispose of waste is approximately $120,000 per year. And while we have recently implemented a sticker system in an attempt to better regulate the use of the transfer station, we need to do more. For this reason, the Board of Selectmen is strongly considering being a pilot town to test the SMART (Save Money and Reduce Trash) garbage disposal process. Basically, instead of buying a brand name garbage bag at the hardware or grocery store, one would buy Old Saybrook trash bags from those same outlets. Resident dollars that would normally be spent on Hefty brand garbage bags (or similar) would now come to the town to offset the cost of waste removal from the transfer station. While the bags may be a little more costly, the ultimate goal is to make certain that all waste that is disposed of belongs in the waste stream, and any materials that could be re-used or recycled stay out of the waste stream. That may mean purchasing foods that come in recyclable containers instead of a plastic bag, or making best efforts to reduce the amount of food waste that we toss in the garbage.
By paying closer attention to what gets thrown away, our residents will generate less waste (up to 40 percent less), we’ll recycle more, perhaps change our shopping habits, and maybe even compost a bit. By fully engaging in this program, Old Saybrook can be an environmental leader in our state, and save hundreds of thousands of dollars from being taxed. That’s a win-win.