Newtown’s three main boards — the Board of Selectmen, the Board of Finance, and the Legislative Council — heard a presentation from the Housatonic Resources Recovery Authority (HRRA) about moving to a pay-as-you-throw plan for waste at a joint meeting on December 9.

The pay-as-you-throw plan would move from the $100 per year permit fee that grants 104 orange bags, that would have slowly increased to $108 per year by 2029, to a plan where there is no permit fee but transfer station users instead pay $1.05 per 13-gallon bag thrown, $2.60 per 32-gallon bag thrown, and $4.40 per 55-gallon bag thrown. The costs would be paid up-front when the bags are purchased, so as to not delay residents throwing away trash during busy times at the Transfer Station.

Jennifer Heath-Jones, the executive director of HRRA, said that while “change is hard,” that a “lot of effort has gone into this process.”

Heath-Jones said the pay-as-you-throw plan would encourage residents to toss less garbage into the general stream and encourage recycling, separating food scraps, and getting rid of items by donating them instead of throwing them away. She likened the current system to a theoretical system where Eversource, instead of charging by how much power individuals use, instead would average out the cost among all users.

“It doesn’t encourage anyone to save money by making sure to turn off the lights,” said Heath-Jones.

Heath-Jones noted that a number of other towns are already on pay-as-you-throw programs, including Bethel, Danbury, New Fairfield, and New Milford.

A household throwing away two bags of garbage per week, a household throwing away one bag per week, a household throwing away three bags per week, and a household throwing out one bag every other week all pay the same $101 fee currently. However, under pay as you throw, the first household with two bags would pay slightly more at $108 per year; the one-bag household would only pay $54 per year, the three-bag household would pay $165 per year; and the household throwing out one bag every other week would only pay $27 per year.

The previous fee and the pay-as-you-throw pricing structure are both designed to ensure that the town can pay its current tipping fees of $101 per ton, increasing to $108 per ton under the current contract. There would be some upfront costs for the town in terms of purchasing the bags to then sell to residents, but overall the program is cost neutral for the town so will have little, if any, budgetary impact beyond the initial outlay that will be reimbursed in fees. The town is also receiving grants towards these programs from HRRA, and HRRA needs to see that the town is committed to the program with a line item in next year’s budget so that Newtown can be eligible for the next round of grants.

No final decisions were made on the pay-as-you-throw program, but the program needs to be included in the budget by the end of January for the purpose of grant eligibility. All three boards are expected to bring up the program and vote at future meetings.

Editor Jim Taylor can be reached at jim@thebee.com.