F.C. Council to Adopt 'Pay as You Throw' Plan for Garbage Pickup

The Falls Church City Council set the wheels in motion at a work session Tuesday toward a new "pay as you throw" policy for garbage pick up in the City, although it plans to implement it no time soon.

Concerned that the public might respond negatively to the prospect, the Council was careful to note that it would "go very slow" with the introduction of such a policy. Still, it is an official recommendation contained a comprehensive new waste management report that the Council will vote to approve June 14, and most on the Council spoke in favor of it, in principle, on grounds of equity this Tuesday.

Three other jurisdictions in Virginia have joined a number across the U.S. in adopting similar policies – charging residents on the basis of how much refuse they put to the curb each week – and Arlington County is considering it, although not planning to implement it for a number of years.

The proposal came forth from a City ad hoc advisory committee tasked with producing a state-mandated, comprehensive Solid Waste Management Plan to be approved by the City Council before July 1.

"The idea of `pay as you throw' is only one small part of a whole set of recommendations in this report," Falls Church Mayor Dan Gardner pointed out.

A major thrust of the report are measures to improve the City's recycling performance, which is way above the national and state averages, but lower than it was a half dozen years ago in the City, according Annette Mills the Recycling Coordinator of the City's Department of Environmental Services.

"The main point is that it is not only good for the environment, but recycling is more cost-effective for the City than regular refuse collection," Mayor Gardner stressed. The report recommends numerous educational and motivational steps to encourage recycling, including the creation of a local "household hazardous waste" recycling center.

Today, Falls Church residents use "green bins" and other means to submit about 55 percent of their refuse to recycling, which is a high percentage but down from 65 percent in 1997, according to Mills. She said that a demographic shift from an older to a younger population in the City in the last half-dozen years could be the culprit in the lower rate.

But Falls Church City also dumps more total solid waste per capita than any surrounding jurisdiction and is way above the national average, as well. The average per capita for Falls Church is more than seven pounds per week, more than six pounds for other nearby jurisdictions and the national average of 4.8.

Leafs and twigs from the dense number of trees in the City's densely-populated 2.2 square miles is a contributor to the high rate, as well as the mean income of City residents.

A City Solid Waste Management Plan leaflet notes that a "pay as you throw" trash collection system will create "an economic incentive to recycle more and to generate less."

But not everyone on the Council was thrilled with the "pay as you throw" policy proposal. Councilman David Snyder cautioned his colleagues that "taxpayers just took a huge hit, one of the biggest in recent years," and that they may feel "they're simply being asked to pay more for the same service." He also noted it might tax larger families more than individuals.

"It could create unnecessary divisions in the community if enough effort hasn't been made to win everyone over to its merits first," he said.

Mayor Gardner concurred that a go-slow approach was called for, one which might even be met with an offsetting real estate tax cut when implemented.

Garbage collection has often been a hot issue in Falls Church, which has stuck to a policy of not charging for it over the years, even though many other jurisdictions do.

In the late 1980s, a huge furor arose over a cost-saving budget decision by the City Council to reduce the pick ups from twice to once a week. In the mid-1990s, when a proposal to charge for refuse pick up was floated by a City Councilman, it was met with a loud and boisterous public opposition.

The current City Council is preparing to formally vote on a resolution to support the just-completed comprehensive solid waste plan at its June 14 meeting, ahead of the July 1 state-mandated deadline. A public hearing will precede the vote.

Mayor Gardner tasked the City's Ad Hoc Solid Waste Management Plan Advisory Committee, which prepared the report, with coming forward with recommendations for a specific "pay as you throw" policy in the coming months.

"There are many ways this can be done," noted City Manager Dan McKeever Monday. One popular version involves bags and stickers, such as is now done for the collection of tree clippings in Falls Church.

Serving on the City's advisory board have been Laura Huber, chair, Charles Anderson, Terry Dingus, Lindy Hockenberry, Martha Meserve, Stiles Peabody, Ida Peterson, Richard Weinberg and Ralph Yatsko. Hockenberry and Meserve were the City Council representatives on the group, which held a number of public meetings and hearings and published a number of public notices since beginning its work last November.

The group was assisted by a team from the City staff and consultant Julian Bentley.