Woolwich will soon address the costs of opting out of Pay As You Throw trash disposal. The program that began last September ends next week on Jan. 27. Selectmen have given residents until Feb. 12 to return any unused orange WasteZero bags to the town office for a full refund.

In response to a Jan. 19 email from the newspaper, Lynette Eastman, Woolwich town administrator, said residents could return bags from Jan. 27 through the close of business at the town office on Friday, Feb. 12. She said residents won't get an immediate refund for the bags.  

“We will have to take names, number of bags and cut them a check for their returns.  They will be refunded the amount they paid per bag,” she stated.

The six retailers that sold PAYT bags will also need to return any unsold bags as well but the town office didn’t know the time frame for doing this. Eastman said some of the stores didn’t reorder bags when they ran out.

On election day, Nov. 3, voters overwhelmingly approved a petitioned referendum calling for the town to sever its contract with WasteZero of North Andover, Massachusetts. WasteZero, a not-for-profit organization, administered PAYT and provided the trash bags sold to residents for non-recyclable trash. The contract required Woolwich to give WasteZero 60 days’ notice for opting out of the program.

WasteZero will credit the town a percentage of the bags’ sales over the last four months against the number of bags that are returned after Jan. 27. The town must reimburse WasteZero for any of the orange plastic trash bags that weren’t sold for approximately 28 cents per bag. Residents, however, will be reimbursed the full cost of the bags that were sold. They came in two sizes: large, in rolls of five for $10, and small in rolls of 10 for $10 per roll.

Prior to last year’s town meeting, selectmen reduced the 2015-2016 solid waste budget $36,000 — the anticipated savings from joining PAYT. Eastman said PAYT’s savings in “tipping fees” and bag sales from September through December will pretty much offset this reduction.  “We’ve made more than $34,000 in revenues,” she noted.

The town pays tipping fees for curbside pickup and disposal of non-recyclable trash for each ton of trash collected. At present no tipping fee is charged for collection of recyclables. WasteZero estimated by joining PAYT Woolwich would save 40 percent in its annual trash removal costs due to a boost in recycling. In the program’s first two months the town had cut its trash volume in half.

In a Jan. 19 email to the newspaper, Joshua Kolling-Perin, director of public engagement at WasteZero, reported from September through the end of November Woolwich’s trash tonnage was down 50 percent as compared to the same three month in 2014.  He noted figures weren’t yet compiled for December.

“As for bag revenue, Kolling-Perin said, “it’s less clear because retailers were working through their existing inventory rather than buying new bags.”