[V]ermont’s new Act 148 universal recycling law bears such nicknames as SMART — Save Money and Reduce Trash. So why do people in towns such as Ludlow, population 1,963, want to toss out the state mandate?
The community that’s home to Okemo Mountain Resort currently uses tax money to offer free weekly garbage pickup to central villagers and, for residents in the rest of town, to charge $10 a year for unlimited trips to its municipal trash disposal station.
But as of July 1, the state will require all Vermonters to pay for waste removal based on volume or weight in hopes of encouraging more recycling. As a result, Ludlow is one of several localities that’s about to switch to a pricier “pay as you throw” system.
“Act 148 creates a new dynamic for us because we’re one of the few towns that still has included trash disposal in our tax base,” municipal manager Frank Heald says. “I’m sure there will be residents who’ll take great umbrage, but when all is said and done, it’s the law.”
Local leaders have held a series of public meetings to discuss ways they can comply.
“Everything is open for discussion,” Heald said at one session.
Almost everything, local leaders amended when Herbert VanGuilder, chairman of the Cemetery Commission, said the town should “stop rolling over and playing dead” and instead contest the mandate.
“I don’t say it’s a good idea, I don’t say it’s a bad idea,” Heald tells townspeople. “The whole purpose of the law is to do the right thing. At this point we have to accept it. How we deal with it is going to be a community decision.”
In Ludlow’s case, all residents will be charged $10 a year for permission to dispose of trash at the municipal transfer station. Households will receive one free specially labeled bag a week and have to pay $1 for each additional one, all in hopes they’ll take advantage of free recycling for paper, cardboard, metal, glass and plastic.
“The paradigm in Ludlow is going to change,” Heald says. “Pay as you throw is not unheard of in the rest of the world — most towns have some form. I don’t think any of us debate whether recycling or reducing the amount of trash we put in the landfill is appropriate or not.”
But local leaders are still figuring out the state law, which will add regulations and restrictions on the disposal of leaf and yard debris and clean wood in 2016 and food scraps in 2020.
“It’s going to be interesting,” Select Board Chairman Howard Barton Jr. said at one meeting. “If you start charging per bag …”
“People will throw it off the roads,” Vice Chairman Bruce Schmidt went on to finish. “It’s an undue burden we are forced to deal with. Have you heard of any towns fighting this?”
The municipal manager nodded his head “no.”
“This is a train that has been coming down the tracks across the country,” Heald said. “We are unique — most other towns have some sort of ‘pay as you throw.’”
Neither the town nor state can say how many other communities are facing the same situation, although Heald cites Brattleboro and Shrewsbury as two examples.
Vermonters seeking more information about the state’s new Act 148 universal recycling law can log onto the Department of Environmental Conservation website.
“There’s a given point you fold your tent and comply,” Heald says. “I just hope it makes the difference people say it will.”
Kevin O’Connor, a former staffer of the Rutland Herald and Barre-Montpelier Times Argus, is a Brattleboro-based writer. Email: kevinoconnorvt@gmail.com
