TO: Mayor and Town Council
FROM: Pay As You Throw Advisory Group
DATE: March 27, 2000
This report brings you
up to date on the Pay As You Throw (PAYT) Advisory Group and its future plans.
The first meeting of
the PAYT Advisory Group was held on August 17, 1999. The first few meetings of the Group were spent organizing around
the charge given by the Council (see Attachment 1) when it authorized the Group
in June of 1999. Four subcommittees
were formed as follows:
·
Mission Statement Committee
·
Obstacles Committee – to “identify potential
obstacles in developing and implementing a ‘pay as you throw’ program, and how
to overcome them”
·
Outreach Committee – to “involve the community
in a conversation about ‘pay as you throw’ with the goals of determining
community attitudes about ‘pay as you throw’”
·
Research Committee – to review previous reports,
conduct additional research on communities in North Carolina and college
communities, as well as look at the success of such programs, among other
things.
As per the charge a
suggested work process and schedule was submitted to the Council in November of
1999.
The subcommittees have
been working on their respective tasks for the past several months. Their work is summarized below.
The PAYT Advisory Group has completed a number of tasks. There is still work to be done to complete the charge given to it by the Council. The work of the subcommittees includes the overall work of the Group and individual elements of the charge as well.
Work to Date
Statement of Purpose
The Group drafted a
statement of purpose to guide the overall work of the Group. The final draft of the statement is attached
(see Attachment 2). This statement
essentially summarizes what the Council asked the Group to do and frames the
work around a few key ideas that relate to the per capita waste reduction goals
adopted by the Council and other governing bodies in Orange County.
Obstacles
This subcommittee
worked on “brainstorming” to identify issues that could be considered obstacles
or “sticking points” in developing and/or implementing a PAYT system. In addition, the subcommittee worked to
identify possible ways to overcome the obstacles previously identified. The Group as a whole then discussed the
lists and amended them. The final
product is attached (see Attachment 3).
In general, the Group found that most obstacles that were identified
could be overcome, although not all solutions are easy or obvious.
Some obstacles or
issues, such as the implications of how to integrate PAYT with other programs
in the area, are such that the Group believes a broader dialogue would be
helpful. Likewise, issues such as
determining whether or not PAYT would be ultimately successful in meeting the
various goals of the community, would, the Group believes, be better answered
by the Council after it hears the completed work of the Group.
Outreach
This subcommittee has
identified a process that the Group as a whole has adopted to provide
information to the community and to receive feedback on the community’s
attitudes about PAYT. The process
includes providing information pieces, such as an article written by member
Alan Rimer for the Chapel Hill Herald (see Attachment 4), for periodic
dissemination. Secondly, the Group
intends to hold a series of meetings with neighborhood associations and others
to provide information about PAYT and to receive feedback. In addition, the Group is working on an
information package to send out to neighborhood associations and others that
would announce the Group’s intention of holding meetings, provide a
questionnaire to sample knowledge and attitudes and provide some information
about PAYT (Attachment 5 includes a part of this proposed package).
A similar process is
envisioned for the commercial sector, although some further refinement of the
process is still forthcoming.
In general, the Group
believes that the outreach effort should be one of fact-finding and exchanging
information rather than advocacy for or against PAYT. The Group hopes to begin the series of meetings this spring.
Research
This task has proven
to be difficult. The subcommittee has
hoped to work with Dr. Marie L. Miranda of Duke University, who has conducted a
significant amount of research into PAYT for EPA and for her own research. The Group hopes that they will be able to
extract information from Dr. Miranda’s database that would fairly closely match
the specifications of the Council’s charge.
If the Group is unsuccessful in this endeavor, a more limited research
effort will be attempted, using information available in the State and through
other possible database sources.
Next Steps
The Advisory Group
suggests that it continue its work to complete several remaining steps. These steps include the following:
1. Complete
outreach effort. This effort will
include holding a series of meetings with community Groups to determine
attitudes about PAYT. This work would
provide the Council with information about what citizens in Chapel Hill believe
about solid waste programs, specifically about their interest in or opposition
to a PAYT system.
2. Assimilate
the information received in the outreach effort and complete analysis of PAYT
per the Council’s charge. If the Group
believes that the community is interested in PAYT, and if the Group agrees that
a PAYT system should be recommended to the Council, then the Group would
proceed to develop a recommendation for how a PAYT system might be constructed
and implemented.
3. Prepare
final report. The Group would provide a
report to the Council that would summarize its work and make final
recommendations.
Schedule
The Advisory Group
believes that its work will require at least a few more months to
complete. The Group acknowledges that
the Council requested a final report before the end of the current budget
deliberations. It seems likely, though,
that all of the work required to complete the tasks outlined in the Council’s
charge will take longer than originally anticipated. The Group believes that the work is important and suggests to the
Council that obtaining the information may be of significant enough value that
a delay may be acceptable.
The PAYT Advisory Group continues to work on the charge given to it by the Council. The Group believes that it can complete its work over the next several months. The Group asks the Council to allow it to continue its work as outlined in this report.
Attachments:
1. Council’s
charge to Advisory Group
2. Draft
Statement of Purpose
3. Obstacles
and ways to overcome them
4. Text
of article for Chapel Hill Herald by Alan Rimer
5. Information
piece for outreach