WasteZero Trash Metering™ Helps the Environment
The premise is simple: less waste and more recycling mean
reduced natural resource depletion, lower energy use, fewer carbon
emissions, and reduced toxins that put water quality at risk.
By eliminating 44% of municipal solid waste (MSW) tonnage that
gets buried or incinerated, WasteZero's programs help protect
invaluable, limited, and diminishing natural resources. Think about
this: for every item that is landfilled or incinerated, a new
one must be extracted, processed, and manufactured from virgin
resources. The US buries or burns close to 170 million tons of
municipal discards every year, but it extracts from the environment
billions of tons
of raw materials to make these products. The benefit to the
environment that could be achieved with WasteZero Trash Metering™
is truly staggering.
“I think everyone has a role to play as an environmental steward, and by moving to a pay-per-bag model, it helped people focus not only on the true cost of waste disposal, but also how we use resources across the board, from what we produce to what we buy and, ultimately, to what we dispose of. The system has been a great success, both fiscally and environmentally.” Waste360 (MA)
“If every town in Connecticut switched to [PAYT] waste management and achieved a 40% diversion rate, then Connecticut would eliminate an estimated 595,000 MTCE (Million Ton of Carbon Equivalent) from the atmosphere - the equivalent of taking 446,250 cars off the roads.” EPA's Pay-As-You-Throw Bulletin
There are other environmental benefits to a WasteZero Trash
Metering program, including extended landfill lifespan and the
reduced need to accommodate new landfills or incinerators. Over
time, WasteZero partner communities have benefitted from extending
the use of their landfills and putting off the challenging and
costly process of finding alternate solutions for their waste
disposal.
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