In Massachusetts, PAYT Gets Boost from State Planner

“Massachusetts is promoting PAYT because it works,” explains Joseph Lambert, recycling solid waste planner for the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and project manager for the state’s unit-based pricing program. “Of the 77 communities with full-fledged programs, over 75 percent received an ‘A’ on their recycling report card.” (To earn an A, communities must achieve a minimum recycling rate of 30 percent.)

Lambert first began noticing PAYT when it successfully increased recycling rates and reduced waste levels in communities like Worcester and Seekonk. With average community recycling rates at 33 percent in 1996—and facing an ambitious 46 percent recycling goal set for the year 2000—Lambert saw in PAYT a way for Massachusetts to move aggressively to find ways to increase diversion in all 351 municipalities across the state.

Since then, Massachusetts has set a goal of having PAYT programs in place in 40 percent of its municipalities by 2000. According to Lambert, “If the 50 largest municipalities in Massachusetts, who represent over 50 percent of the state’s population, all implement unit-based pricing, the statewide recycling rate will jump from 33 percent to nearly 37 percent.”

Grants and Technical Assistance

Getting communities to consider implementing PAYT was the next step. Lambert and other state planners began focusing on innovative ways to use grant programs, technical assistance, and other strategies to encourage local officials to consider PAYT and, if appropriate, adopt a program. Offering financial incentives through the state’s voluntary Municipal Recycling Incentive Program (MRIP) is one strategy they promoted. Under MRIP, interested municipalities must meet a set of eligibility criteria, including increasing recycling participation, recycling access, and recycled product purchases. Municipalities that qualify receive a direct grant payment—an “incentive,” as it’s called by state and local planners—for each ton of designated recyclables diverted. To encourage use of PAYT, Massachusetts exempts from the participation and access criteria (although not from the buy recycled requirements) those municipalities that have or will implement unit-based pricing, making it easier for them to qualify for incentive payments.

Because many communities are concerned about such PAYT implementation costs as purchasing bags or stickers, Massachusetts also awards grants for bags or stickers to new programs. To qualify, a community has to provide the state with a PAYT implementation plan and document that the program has the local political support it needs to move forward. Grants of $10 per household are awarded to qualifying communities to help defray such costs as the purchase, printing, and shipping of customized bags or stickers from the state's contracted vendors. If there are additional funds remaining after the purchase of bags or stickers, the community may use the grant for recycling containers, educational materials, or other program expenses.

Massachusetts also provides a referral service to people calling in for information, modeled after the Council of Northeastern Governors’s PAYT peer-mentoring program. To implement this service, Lambert explained, “The first thing we did was obtain accurate data on what the state is doing.” DEP then produced a guide that lists and describes the state’s PAYT communities. Interested planners can call any of DEP’s four regional planners or seven MRIP district coordinators for information or assistance.

In the Works

Because PAYT is often critical to the success of curbside recycling programs, Lambert is encouraging communities to offer “parallel access” to both recycling and trash collection. According to Lambert, “You get the most out of unit-based pricing if you offer curbside collection of both trash and recyclables.” And DEP is proposing another incentive for communities to implement PAYT: a fast track to Department Approved Recycling Program (DARP) certification. Earning this certification exempts a community from the random inspections they would otherwise face at disposal facilities to determine if they are complying with the state's waste bans. While there is currently a long list of proposed criteria that a municipality must meet to receive DARP certification, proposals for 1999 to 2000 ease conditions for achieving DARP status if the municipality has PAYT.

All told, Lambert says, these efforts are enabling Massachusetts to help build a PAYT infrastructure. For more information about efforts to expand PAYT in Massachusetts, contact Joseph Lambert at 617 574-6875.

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