At the beginning of June, Transfer Station permit holders were sent a flyer explaining new orange trash bags were going to be coming to Newtown soon. A lot of residents saw the flyer and became concerned that the town might be doing away with freedom of choice on garbage bags. However, that couldn’t be any further from the truth, say town officials.

In September of 2023, the HRRA and Public Works introduced this new orange bag program to Newtown to relieve at least some of the state’s current waste crisis, where there is a 1.6-million-pound shortfall in the waste management system. Residents who took the challenge were provided 104 orange trash bags, or enough for two bags a week for one year. Participants in the original pilot program also participated in the Food Scraps Recycling program, which takes a lot of waste out of the waste stream and repurposes it into usable, fertile compost for residents to use.

One of the biggest misconceptions about this new orange bag program is that it is mandatory. The flyer most recently received is to alert residents that the pilot program is expanding with hopes that it will become a permanent change in July of 2025. The purpose of the expansion of this pilot program is to get better data on how much people are throwing away.

“We are trying to say, ‘plan now for permanency later,’” Arlene Miles, Public Works administrator, said.

Fred Hurley, director of Public Works, agreed, saying, “This is practice time.”

Bag Specifics

Residents debated the size of the bags online. The bags are 13 gallons and fit a standard kitchen garbage pail. Residents who participate in the pilot program are given 104 bags for free, but additional bags can be purchased at Public Works, 4 Turkey Hill Road. A roll of 13 bags is $3.50. Public Works is in the process of understanding the need and demand of larger bags for residents.

“We’re taking this year to practice … we’re taking a year to listen to people to get it right, make suggestions, and practice reducing waste,” Hurley explained.

At the Transfer Station, the current drop-off is where the “non-compliant” bags will continue being collected. The new orange trash bags will go into a separate receptacle in the recycling loop, conveniently located next to the food scraps collection, which this program is meant to coincide with.

There will not be a limit on how many bags a resident can drop off at a time, either. If a resident wants to wait four weeks and drop off eight bags, that isn’t an issue. The main goal of this program is to reduce waste overall, and to assist residents who are seriously thinking about what they are throwing away, not police how much people are throwing away.

A lot of residents expressed concern for larger families, claiming the program was unfair to them. Miles said, “It’s going to cost them more in the end because we’ve been subsidizing them now. I’m only throwing away one bag a week, but they got six. So my hundred dollars is the same as their hundred dollars … We’re all responsible for the garbage we produce.”

Funding

Taxpayer dollars are not contributing to the funding of the program. The normal operation fees cover the expenses, and a grant is picking up the additional costs. Another goal of this program is to adjust the cost of a Transfer Station permit in the future.

The specifics of whether the bags are going to be provided to residents if the program becomes mandatory are not known yet.

“We want to set it up so it’s convenient for people … We’re taking a look at whether or not we’re going to adjust the price for a bag as well as the price for the permit. The permit can end up being free and [residents] only buy bags. I mean, there’s a number of ways that I think this can go,” Hurley said.

Hurley also explained that the Ad Hoc Committee overseeing this transition is open and willing to listen to the public’s concerns and suggestions. Miles is directing people with suggestions to the Public Works’ email: ts.permits@newtown-ct.gov.

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Reporter Sam Cross can be reached at sam@thebee.com.