Garbage doesn't have to be  so wasteful.

At least that is the contention of the Maplewood Environmental Advisory Committee and the Maplewood Green Team. Dirk Olin of the Environmental Advisory Committee, Steve Weber of the Green Team, and Bob McCoy — a member of both — presented a new scenario for garbage hauling to the Township Committee at their last meeting on June 7. That proposal will get more air time tonight as the Township Committee takes up the issue again in discussion.

A 4-page description of the proposal can be found on the Township website. In brief, the proposal has two key elements:

• Single contract between the town and a hauler (currently residents contract directly with one of two designated haulers). The town bills each individual user (homeowner, apartment dweller, etc) with an annual fee, similar in structure to the sewer fee paid now. The fee — estimated to be between $175 and $235 — covers collection, administrative costs and a "recycling improvements fund."
• A "pay as you throw" system, whereby customers throw their garbage out in special bags that are purchased in stores or from the hauler. The cost of the bag covers the tipping fee — the actual cost of throwing out trash. The presenters contrasted this with the current system where customers pay for two 32-gallon garbage pails per pickup twice a week no matter how much trash they have. Using this plan, "light users" — or those using about two 13-gallon bags per week — could pay as little as $250 to $310 per year. (The proposal estimates that "heavy users" — those using three 30-gallon bags per week — would pay between $375 and $435 per year.)

The proposal projects the annual overall savings to Maplewood residents to be between $300,000 and $700,000.

Trash pickup would continue to be twice weekly and the hauler would provide rear yard service.

McCoy, Olin and Weber pointed to successful programs such as the one they described in nearby towns like Chatham and Glen Ridge.

Overall, said the men, the theory of the propositions are that they reduce the waste stream, drive efficiencies by making the cost of the trash that residents toss out more visible to each customer, induce more recycling (and recyclers) and cost dramatically less than what Maplewoodians are paying now.

Although the Township Committee focused more on the potential cost savings of such at plan at the last meeting, McCoy says that the environmental motivation of the proposal should be a bigger part of the discussion. "The potential benefits are of a large magnitude," wrote McCoy. "National studies of pay-as-you-throw systems indicate that they reduce garbage disposal an average of 17% by a combination of source reduction — people finding ways to reduce the intake of materials that end up at the incinerator — and increased recycling."

"We calculated that if Maplewood could get even a 10% reduction it would be the environmental equivalent of avoiding 4 million minivan miles," added McCoy. "So we are talking about a big deal!"

The Environmental Advisory Committee is continuing to work out details of such a plan, including what the administrative costs would be for the town. There are also questions about the cost of bulk pickup and how it would work.