by Susan Phillips, WHYY News

Charge residents separately for trash collection? What do you think about the idea?

It seems like enough of a hassle just to remember to take out the trash every week. Now the city is debating whether to charge residents for trash collection, either by a pay-as-you-throw fee per bag of trash, or just a flat cost for collection. WHYY’s Susan Phillips reported on the issue at the end of last week with a series of stories that included resident reactions to the ideas, ways in which the fee would cover the cost of sanitation, and a comparison of other models for collection.  She also spoke with the city’s Director of Sustainability, Mark Alan Hughes, and learned how the city is planning to save money in energy costs over the next several years.

You can check out all of the coverage below.

Philadelphia residents could end up paying for trash pick-up to help plug the $1 billion dollar budget gap. Nutter administration officials are considering a proposal to charge each household $5 per week to pay for trash pickups.

“Pay as you throw” is one option that will get debated tonight at the second of four budget forums. Last week, Northeast residents Joanne Kincaid and Bill Gault gave it mixed reviews.

Kincaid and Gault: “I think that’s a slippery slope if they start charging for trash. It will increase illegal dumping, if that’s even possible in this city.”

Deputy Mayor Rina Cutler says it would cover 100 percent of the cost of collecting trash in Philadelphia. It would save the city about $26 million dollars in the next fiscal year, and Cutler says free up $100 million dollars by 2011.

Cutler says if residents do not pay for trash pick up, the city may be forced to cut collections to just two or three per month.

Nutter has asked every city department to report on how 10-, 20- or 30-percent budget cuts would affect city services. Tonight’s budget forum takes place in Germantown.

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About 300 municipalities across the state require residents to pay directly for trash pick-up. Philadelphia is not one of them but that could change as a way to help plug the city’s budget gap.

If the city’s Streets Department has to cut 20 to 30 percent of its budget, city officials say the choice could come down to charging each household $5 per week for collection, or reducing collection to just two or three times a month.

Charging makes residents worry about illegal dumping, also called short-dumping. But Deputy Mayor Rina Cutler says she hopes it won’t make a difference.

Cutler: “Does this make it worse? Its hard to tell. If we don’t do this and we only collect trash two or three times a month, you’ll probably get short-dumping anyway.

Cutler says the five dollar fee would let the city save between $85 million and $105 million dollars a year — completely covering the cost of trash pick-up.

She says charging for trash will also help reduce the cost of landfill disposal and increase recycling.

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It’s time to turn off the lights and turn down the thermostat in city buildings. Philadelphia officials working to close the city’s budget gap are looking at ways to reduce energy costs. These and other budget options will be discussed tonight at the monthly sustainability meeting.

The city spends about $34 million dollars a year keeping its buildings lit and heated and cooled.

Mark Alan Hughes, the city’s Director of Sustainability wants to cut those utility bills by ten percent. Hughes says the first step would be to show these bills to department heads.

Hughes: “The way we do our energy budgets in government, makes the cost of energy for the occupants of our buildings, all of our fire stations, rec centers and libraries and on and on and on, its as if the cost of energy in those buildings was free.”

Hughes says currently, there is no accountability when it comes to energy use, because utilities are automatically paid for out of the general operating fund. He says departments would have an incentive to cut more than ten percent because  savings above that threshold could get funneled back to the department.

Hughes says a ten percent reduction in utility bills could save the city $18.5 million over five years. The city faces a one billion dollar budget gap.

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Philadelphia city officials are thinking about different ways they can charge residents for trash collection. Different models exist in cities across the country.

The city wants to charge each household $5 dollars a week for trash pick-up. Other cities and towns use what is called “pay as you throw.” Residents either pay by the weight of their trash or pay per bag.

Charlie Young is spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. He says the pay as you throw model benefits the environment.

Young: “That gives the residents a strong incentive to reduce the amount of trash that’s ultimately sent to the landfill. The more you set out, the more you pay.”

But it also leads to illegal dumping. Bucknell University economics professor Thomas Kinnaman studies waste collection policy.

Kinnaman: “Where that waste ends up though is the big question. In some cases it ends up in recycling bin. But the question is how much of that waste ends up as illegal dumping.”

Kinnaman says a study he conducted showed illegal dumping increased 30 percent after “pay as you throw” was introduced in Charlottesville Virginia. He says the program works best in small towns and suburbs where there are fewer places to dump trash.

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