Below are links to some examples of formal bag/tag systems in the US.
Dover, NH,
Charles County, MD
Mount Pleasant, MI
Sunnyvale, CA
Houston, TX
Duluth, GA
Tompkins County, NY
Malden, MA
Grafton, MA
Shrewsbury, MA
This is just a few.
Here is a link to details on the success of a bag/tag program in Worcester, MA.
Success in Maine
Variations on pay-per-throw in RI
Good reading on the topic of waste in NC from NCSU
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Reading the article about Worcester’s PAYT program was very interesting. They stated that they saw immediate success and the statistics were a little surprising. “Within the first week, the recycling rate was up from 2-percent to 38-percent and within a year, solid waste volume had dropped 47-percent.” That’s awesome. If we implemented these programs everywhere the environmental and economic impact would be enormous. Another statement that stood out to me was the VP of Casella Waste Systems Joseph Fusco commenting that “the easier you make it to recycle, the more people will be willing to participate.” I feel that this is definitely true and is another advantage to the Zero Sort system of recycling.
Learning about the success of waste reduction int he town of Eliot Maine, with management provided by WasteZero, was uplifting to say the least. I have never heard of this company but upon reading this article and doing a little further reading into the company it is apparent they are attempting to solve the horrendous waste problem that plagues the United States. The program achieved results of residents decreasing their waste by 57% in a three month period, if this is only in three months imagine what could happen in three years. One of the most encouraging bits of this article was a quote from the Public Works Director of Eliot, Joel Moulton, when he stated that: "To reduce the disposal of municipal waste by greater than another 50% is excellent, which puts the town on track to maintaining a low budget for its transfer station operation and in turn reduces the tax burden on residents." By referencing the finances of the situation Moulton is appealing to one of the most vital aspects of households and personal interest. The success of this small town lends hope to other small towns around the United States, if this movement were to begin from the bottom up it may be more effective to put pressure on the larger cities around the nation.
The situation in Duluth, GA interests me because, amid all the more downtrodden areas of Georgia, Duluth remains at the top of the state for suburbs to live in and thus more people would be willing to participate in recycling projects even if they cost more. It'd be interesting to me to see a comparison to other similar suburbs and towns across the state to see their willingness to participate in these same projects, however. This would allow those in charge to find a good median cost in case they want to try and enact a state-wide initiative for recycling and other environmentally sound movements.
After reading the Low Downs For NC Landfills the first thing that cam to my mind was that we are making great improvement towards waste production. After I kept reading all I could see was people reading this and thinking the do not have to recycle because everyone else is recycling for them. My fear in the bag and tag and recycling is that if someone reads some of the good statistics about this issue they fall under the free-rider problem. Even though North Carolina is have good success I am afraid that the free-rider problem will prevent us from being as resourceful as possible. After I read the pay-as-you-throw policy from Rhode Island it helped to make sense of how bag and tag helps prevent the free-rider problem. If you have to pay fro every piece of trash you throw away you can not help but be resourceful because you can not afford to throw everything away.
I think making landfills more expensive to maintain can be a great strategy for incentives for reducing waste. If more laws and regulations were put into practice, I believe people will have a higher incentive to reduce more waste.
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