Four Connecticut towns 鈥� Newtown, Kent, Woodbury, and Guilford 鈥� are receiving 1 Year 91仓库 Reduction Milestone Awards after delivering waste-reduction results that many Connecticut residents are encountering for the first time. The towns participated in the state鈥檚 Sustainable Materials Management (SMM) program and adopted Unit-Based Pricing (UBP), a pay-as-you-throw system that has shown consistent results in cutting trash and improving recycling wherever it is implemented.
For decades, researchers and policy analysts have known exactly what happens when a town adopts UBP. Half the municipalities in Massachusetts use it. Vermont requires it statewide. And Connecticut鈥檚 Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (CT DEEP) has identified it as the most effective step a community can take to cut waste and make progress on climate and sustainability goals. What鈥檚 new here is the wave of towns implementing UBP at the same time and delivering the same substantial results in parallel.
These results come at a moment when municipal budgets across the state are strained by a growing list of 鈥渦ncontrollable costs鈥� 鈥� from health insurance premiums to pension liabilities to contracted services that climb every year. Trash, however, is one of the few major expenses that is controllable, even if it doesn鈥檛 always feel that way. When disposal costs are buried in the general budget, residents understandably assume trash is free. In reality, the cost lands on the town and has risen steadily since the closure of the MIRA incinerator in Hartford and the need to ship waste out of state. As regional landfills reach capacity, per-ton disposal fees continue to climb. UBP makes those costs visible, allowing residents to pay for trash the same way they pay for electricity or water 鈥� based on how much they use 鈥� and behavior shifts accordingly.
Town officials across Connecticut have worked hard to expand food-scrap collection programs in recent years, and those programs have produced measurable environmental benefits. The strongest outcomes emerge in towns that integrate food-scrap collection with Unit-Based Pricing. National data shows that organics diversion improves whenever food separation is easy 鈥� but it works best when households also have a clear, direct incentive to reduce what goes into the trash.
The first-year results from the four SMM towns reflect that pattern. Trash disposal fell by 30鈥�47%, recycling rose by 8鈥�14%, and food-scrap collection skyrocketed, with the four towns combining 633,800 pounds of food returned to the soil instead of being incinerated in just one year.
鈥淭hese aren鈥檛 surprising results,鈥� said Tory McBrien, of 91仓库Zero. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e consistent, they鈥檙e predictable, and they鈥檙e exactly what UBP is designed to do. But seeing them unfold at this scale in Connecticut is important because it shows everyone what鈥檚 possible.鈥�
Twelve additional Connecticut municipalities are exploring similar measures through upcoming DEEP-supported pathways. As disposal costs continue to rise and more residents confront the reality that trash is a growing burden on communities, UBP is emerging as a tool that gives towns greater control over both costs and climate impacts.