Fort Worth considers pay-as-you-throw - Municipal Recycling - Brief Article

Recycling Today, Feb, 2003

The City Council of Fort Worth, Texas, has tentatively approved a new pay-as-you-throw fee schedule.

According to the Forth Worth Star Telegram, beginning this summer residents will pay for weekly collection based on the size of the garbage cart they select from the city: $8 for a 32-gallon cart; $13 for a 64-gallon cart; or $18 for a 96-gallon cart.

The pay-as-you-throw fee schedule will replace the current flat monthly rate of about $13.75 for collections twice a week.

City Councilman Jeff Wentworth recommended that Council approve the new rates. Projections estimate that 63 percent of Fort Worth households will have a reduction in their bills, he added.

The paper quotes Assistant City Manager Libby Watson as saying, "The greater difference between the rates, the greater the recycling. And it allows larger carts ... for those who absolutely refuse to take part in recycling."

According to the Star Telegram, Fort Worth currently recycles roughly 6 percent of household trash, despite a statewide goal of 40 percent.

Dot Kent, public education specialist for the city's Environmental Management Department, told the paper that the recycling goal for the first year of the program is 20 percent.

No fee will be charged for the collection of recyclables, and each household will receive a 64-gallon cart for those items during February and March.

A pilot program involving about 8,000 households has been using the cart system for about four years.