Garbage fee boosts recycling in Massachusetts town

Implementing a “pay as you throw” system for waste disposal has been credited with more than doubling the recycling rate in Hanson, Massachusetts.

A blog post by the Boston Globe says the town’s recycling rate rose from 16 percent in fiscal 2014 to 38 percent in its 2015 fiscal year.

The town’s municipal solid waste (MSW) volume declined from more than 2,700 tons in 2014 to fewer than 990 tons in 2015, according to the blog post. Hanson also paid waste-to-energy plant operator Covanta $51,000 less in the fiscal year because less MSW was taken to the Covanta plant in Rochester, Massachusetts.

Hanson adopted a “pay as you throw” fee for MSW with its 2015 fiscal year. The Boston Globe write-up also says there was less commercial activity at the town’s transfer station in 2015.

According to a list posted by the town’s Department of Public Works, Hanson accepts a long list of items for recycling, including: magazines, catalogs, newspapers, telephone directories, junk mail, paperboard, cardboard, soft cover books, plastics #1 through #7, glass bottles and jars, aluminum pie plates, trays and cans and steel cans.