Pay As You Throw, Fiscally Conservative & Socially Progressive

CC image on Flickr by Bill Ward

Tonight the Brattleboro Selectboard is likely to reverse a previous decision which rejected Pay As You Throw (PAYT) garbage pickup. Brattleboro, like many towns, doesn't charge you directly to pick up and haul garbage. Instead garbage collection and pickup is part of the town's general budget and is therefore payed by property owners based on their property taxes.

It's an unfair system. I have no reason not to throw out large amounts of garbage every week. I have no reason to recycle. And anyone who does limit their trash and recycles what they can is actually paying more so that I can do whatever I want. PAYT makes the system fair. If I want to be wasteful, I still can. But now I will have to shoulder the cost of the waste myself. People have controll over their expenses.

A likely scenario for PAYT in Brattleboro will be that every 30 gallon trash bag you throw out will cost $2. Over the course of a year, if you throw out one bag a week (which I average) it will cost you only $104. If on the other hand, you have no interest in sorting your recycling out, composting, or reducing your waste, you will pay significantly more. I will not have to support your bad habits when my landlord would raise my rent because his property taxes increase.

The great things about PAYT are that you the consumer are in control of your expenses, you do not have to subsidize other people's wastefulness, and it encourages everyone to conserve, recycle, and compost.

Quick Bites: Thursday, May 22nd

This weekend, Katie and I went on the Putney Solar & Green Energy Home Tour. We visited an incredible owner built home on Putney Mountain that Katie said was "inspirational." It had a home made solar array supplying only 600 watts to the battery bank, but it was no small house. Everything was well thought out from the siting to the appliances: the fridge was gas, the stove which also supplied the hot water was wood, and they had a masonry stove for heating during the winter. They even had a washer and dryer.

Like pollinators, but don't want to keep honeybees? Why not get a native bee nesting block?

Or perhaps bats are more your style. Most bats in the U.S. are insectivores so keeping bats around is a great way to keep your garden healthy. Sadly bats in the Northeast have succumbed to an illness (currently called white nose syndrome) that uses up their fat stores for hibernation this winter. The bat houses that you can make or buy may not be occupied year round, because many species of bats are migratory, but they can hold hundreds at a time when they are occupied.

If you're thinking of replacing your consumer electronics (i.e. iPods, cell phones, etc) you might be interested in the CExchange. They help you appriase your product, then you mail it to them where they refurbish or recycle it, and send you money. Like Craigslist or eBay without the hassle.

My mom has been happily using a Sun Oven instead of her own indoor stove for the last couple of months and she swears that she'll write a review for me soon. But to tide myself over I found this review of solar ovens by Cooks Illustrated. It turns out that you can even use them as far north as Boston.

Household Goods

Source: www.ifyoucare.com

Just a quickie, while I'm working on some other posts: Here's something Mundane that you can do that actually adds up. Whenever you run out of your paper towells, or toilet paper, or aluminum foil, replace it with the recycled kind.

If you've gone ahead and decided to plant trees for reforestation, why waste other trees for something as silly as wiping up the OJ you spilled this morning? Sure it's usually a little more expensive, but you're getting $600 in the mail soon. Remember to get 100% recycled with as high a post consumer recycled content as possible, and are chlorine bleach free. This article has a rundown of brands including their recycled and bleach content.

Recycled aluminum foil takes 95% less energy to produce than non-recycled, and protects land that would otherwise be mined.