Housatonic Resources Recovery Authority (HRRA) Executive Director Jennifer Heaton-Jones hosted a community talk on Thursday, January 8, at Newtown Community Center to discuss the recent changes to Newtown's curbside recycling program.

This comes after Newtown's curbside recycling program ended on January 1, meaning residents who do not use a private hauler for their garbage and recycling pickup have to take recycling to Newtown Transfer Station on Ethan Allen Road.

Heaton-Jones started by likening the HRRA to a "sort of department for Newtown on waste and recycling." She said she represents 14 municipalities, adding that most of their job is educating the public about waste and recycling.

The HRRA also works with haulers so they can get licensed to collect materials throughout the region, and partners with towns to ensure there are collection and disposal options for everyone.

This is important, she said, because every single Connecticut resident makes waste.

"Recycling has to go somewhere. It has to be managed. There has to be a system to collect it, whether it's at the curb or at a transfer station," Heaton-Jones said. "And so we help our member towns however we can."

To that end, Heaton-Jones said she noticed a lot of confusion on Facebook and social media about the recent changes to Newtown's curbside recycling program.

She reached out to the Town in the hopes of doing a community talk to help residents better understand their waste and recycling options, what haulers are allowed to charge for waste and recycling, and what is changing as a result of this transition.

She said residents have two waste and recycling options. The first option is hiring a registered hauler who is licensed to operate in Newtown and offers curbside waste and recycling services.

Haulers in this category, Heaton-Jones said, include All American Waste, LoStocco Refuse Service, Newtown Garbage Removal, Interstate Waste Services aka Oak Ridge, and WIN Waste Innovation.

She said there are over 70 registered haulers in the region. There are more haulers who are registered in Newtown, but Heaton-Jones said they only do junk removal or bulky waste.

If someone does not wish to pay for curbside collection, residents have the option of using Newtown Transfer Station. A permit for the transfer station costs $0 and features the blue bag, save-as-you-throw (SAYT) program.

Hauler Fees

Among the confusion she saw online, Heaton-Jones noticed a lot residents had questions regarding hauler fees and how much they are charging. This is because some residents expressed that they were being charged a different rate than their neighbors for collection.

"I will say that you can have ten homes on the same road and have four different haulers, and everybody's paying a different rate," Heaton-Jones said. "You can even have ten homes on the same road with one hauler and everyone's paying a different rate."

Heaton-Jones explained this is because it is an open market. She continued by saying they are small businesses and have their own costs to run their operation.

While the HRRA does not regulate what they can charge a costumer, Heaton-Jones said the rules are that haulers are required to provide their service for recycling.

"That is a state law. If they are providing you their service for waste, they have to provide you the service of recycling," Heaton-Jones explained.

Another state law, she said, is that haulers must include the charge of both services in the bill as one item. A charge for residential recycling collection is included within the overall solid waste collection fee.

Heaton-Jones looped back to her previous point, that of haulers having their own costs to maintain business.

"When they collect material from your home, or even from the transfer station, they go to another transfer station to get rid of it. They pay the disposal fee for your garbage. They also pay a disposal fee for your recycling. It is not free for them," Heaton-Jones explained.

She said private haulers currently pay $110.91 per ton, or $.55 cents pound, to dispose of municipal solid waste. The recycling rate is $76.11 per ton, a number which Heaton-Jones said is based on market conditions and changes every three months.

Using The Transfer Station

To use Newtown Transfer Station, Heaton-Jones said Newtown residents have to obtain a transfer station permit. While getting the permit is free, people will need to provide their proof of residency and car registration to Newtown.

The current permit is valid until June 30, 2027.

When people go to the transfer station to dispose of material, there are different fees or no fees. For household trash, residents purchase a Town-branded blue bag to dispose of their waste, and recycling is free.

Residents can buy the blue bags at the transfer station or at certain retail stores in town, such as Big Y, CVS, and Stop & Shop.

The Town-branded blue bags come in three different sizes: 13-gallon bags ($1.05 per bag), 32-gallon bags (2.60 per bag), and 55-gallon bags (4.40 per bag). All three types are sold by the roll, while the 13-gallon bags are also sold by the box.

The bag fees were calculated to cover the Town's cost for residents' trash.

The Town disposal is $.05 cents a pound, which is a little less than private haulers. This translates to around $105-106 a ton.

Since the average bag weighs 15 pounds, the Waste Management Committee (formerly known as the Recycling Ad Hoc Committee) combined that number with the $.05 cents a pound and determined the cost of a 15-pound bag to the Town is .75 cents.

Heaton-Jones said they added this to the cost of a blue bag, which is $.27 cents, and it came to a $1.02 cost to the Town for the bag and disposal. They then set the price to $1.05 per 13 gallons. Heaton-Jones noted this price does not cover the cost to operate the transfer station.

She likened the cost of a blue bag to that of a garbage bag at the grocery store.

"Believe it or not, the average bag of Hefty or any of these other brand names is about $.26-$.27 cents, so the Town is really not charging you more than you would have paid from the grocery store," Heaton-Jones said.

She pulled up a chart comparing Newtown Transfer Station's fees to that of other transfer stations in the region.

"Some of the towns are charging as high as $3 a 13-gallon bag, or even $5 a 13-gallon bag in the case of Ridgefield," Heaton-Jones explained. "So they really said, 'What's the absolute minimum that we can charge them by covering our costs,' and that's how they came up with the $1.05."

Heaton-Jones said she was surprised with Newtown's number considering other towns are charging their residents more to help cover for operating costs. Where it costs Newtown $.05 a pound to dispose of trash, Redding charges $.20 and Bethel charges $.25.

She also noted Newtown is the only town to offer free disposal for recycling, bulky waste, and organics. Every other town in the region, Heaton-Jones said, at least charges for recycling.

Why SAYT, Why Recycle

This begs the question: why the SAYT program? Heaton-Jones asked the audience if they would pay for their neighbor's electric bill.

"That's what we were doing in Newtown [for trash]," Heaton-Jones explained. "For many years, everyone paid $100 a year to use the transfer station. So you paid $100 no matter what you threw away, no matter what you generated."

The SAYT program, Heaton-Jones said, makes waste disposal more equitable. She brought up an example of four different models, each paying a different amount based on their waste production.

One example consisted of a guy in a family that brings in an average of two bags a week, and went from paying $100 to $109.20 a year.

The next example was of a single woman who averages one bag a week, and went from paying $100 down to $54.60 a year. Another example was of a senior who brings one bag of garbage every other week, and went from paying $100 to $27.30 a year.

"The Town made a change to go to the blue bag system to create a more equitable and fair system for everyone. You want to make garbage? You can make garbage. You can make as much garbage as you want, but you have to pay for your fair share," Heaton-Jones said.

She then discussed what happens if people do not recycle. Heaton-Jones said this was a big question, and that some frustrated residents said they would not recycle anymore.

However, if people do not recycle, Heaton-Jones said it will hurt local haulers.

"No one's going to show up to your house as recycling police ... but it will hurt your local hauler ... who has to pay for that garbage," Heaton-Jones said. "It's cheaper for them to get rid of your recycling than your garbage. You put your recycling in your garbage, now they're paying more."

She said haulers are also subject to contamination fees at the transfer station, and will get a Notice of Violation for it. The State of Connecticut has the opportunity, if they want, to fine that hauler $2,500 to $10,000 per action.

"And then because they violated it after three times, we, as the authority in the region, could suspend then," Heaton-Jones said. "That's not fair to your local hauler because you decided it's too inconvenient for you to recycle."

Waste Crisis

Heaton-Jones said recycling is also important because of the waste crisis. Connecticut has four waste-to-energy Plants in the state, and is the only state in the United States that is 100% waste-to-energy. Every other state in the country is a combination of waste-to-energy or landfill, or just landfill.

Connecticut also has four Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs), which is where residents' recycling goes. Recycled materials are sorted, bailed, and sold as a commodity.

While the state has a lot of capacity for recycling, Heaton-Jones said it does not have capacity for its waste. Connecticut has the capacity to manage 2.7 million tons of municipal solid waste annually, but generates approximately 3.5 million tons annually.

Heaton-Jones said they are shipping over a million tons of waste out of the state every year.

"We are reliant on Pennsylvania, Ohio, and upstate New York to take our garbage. At some point, those states [won't want our garbage anymore] or will [start to charge us for it]. That's why we're calling it a crisis," Heaton-Jones said.

There are only so many things the state can do to address the capacity issue, such as building more plants or opening up their landfills. Reducing waste, Heaton-Jones said, is one option.

She then briefly outlined some rules on recycling, namely to never put items two inches or smaller in the recycling bin. This includes prescription bottles, strays, batteries, and even shredded paper.

As a general rule of thumb, Heaton-Jones said residents should recycle items that are empty, rinsed, clean, and open. She also said to not shred, box, bag, or bundle recycled items together.

Other more detailed information on recycling, including Connecticut's Universal Recycling Guide, can be found on HRRA's website.

Heaton-Jones then opened the floor for a Question & Answer segment, where residents could ask anything about waste, recycling, the SAYT program, and more.

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Reporter Jenna Visca can be reached at jenna@thebee.com.