SALEM — Despite continued attempts to make recycling easier and appealing, Public Works Director Rick Russell says he still sees plenty of people who will not separate recyclables from trash.
"Arguments every day," Russell said.
Some people are unaware of what they must and must not recycle. Others just don't want to recycle. Russell said one man recently told him, "Absolutely no way. I don't care what the town does. I'm not recycling."
Last night, the town's Municipal Solid Waste Committee met with Donald Maurer, supervisor of the Waste Management Division for the state Department of Environmental Services. Maurer presented a number of options the town could follow to increase its below-average recycling rate, including use of a "pay-as-you-throw system." Residents would be charged for each bag of trash but recycling is free.
The town hoped to increase recycling when it introduced single-stream recycling - allowing people to mix recyclables - in September 2008.
Although the recycling rate rose, Salem still ranks below the state average, Russell said.
"At least it's going up," he added.
The rate was 11 percent in September 2008, about the average for that year and also 2007. The town averaged 14.5 percent last year.
The statewide average is 21 percent, and has not budged for several years. Maurer said waste removal is "big business" in New Hampshire, and because recycling costs towns less than trash removal, it represents large potential savings.
Last month, Salem's recycling rate was 18 percent, up from 16 percent in January. That percentage does not include metal, although it is recycled by the town. Russell said there is no telling why the January figure is better.
"If you could figure that out, you could play the Powerball," he said. "There's no rhyme or reason. It's up and down."
Maurer said pay-as-you-throw led to a high recycling rate in Dover, which is similar in size to Salem.
In Concord, which has about 40,000 residents compared with Salem's approximately 29,000, the city's recycling rate has increased from about 9 percent to between 25 and 30 percent, Maurer said.
Patrick Hargreaves, who chairs the Municipal Solid Waste Committee, said pay-as-you-throw was the main option the group considered proposing at the 2011 Town Meeting. Hargreaves said he had brought his week's worth of trash to the transfer station yesterday: eight bags of recyclables and two with trash.
"If we go to pay-as-you throw, it'd cost me $3," he said, using a typical price of $1.50 per bag.
While the town considers its options, Hargreaves said committee members plan to focus on educating people. They will pass out magnets, stickers and fliers saying what is and is not recyclable.
"It's hard to teach people a new thing," he said. "It's easy for me to recycle because I was brought up recycling."
Maurer said education will be key if the town decides to propose pay-as-you-throw. In Concord, officials spent a long time educating the public about the program to garner support.
Part of that goal was to dispel what Maurer called common myths about pay-as-you-throw: People will have to start paying for something previously free (taxes pay for trash removal), or people will be double-taxed (bag revenues offset transfer station costs, lowering the town's budget, he said). If the town put the article up for a vote at this year's Town Meeting, it would probably fail, Maurer said.
"It will take them a year to do it," he said.
The options to boost recycling include constant education and outreach campaigns, teaming up with other towns and allowing small businesses to use the town transfer station on certain days, Maurer said.
"No matter what you do, you have to teach people," Maurer said.
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