The Central Vermont Solid Waste Management District has announced that it has loweredits tax fee (or per capita fee) to district towns byhalf. At its most recent board meeting, supervisors voted unanimously to halve the per capita rate from $2 per district resident, to $1. At the same time, CVSWMD has actually been able to expand its programing, offering composting and Zero Waste resources to 100% of the schools in its 17-town district, as well as vastly expanded recycling and reuse opportunities, and a residential composting pilot project.
What is Per Capita?
The CVSWMD, like all other Vermont solid waste districts, is a municipality, and as such is funded by a variety of sources, including a tax called the ‘per capita’in which each person in each district town is taxed at a set rate. Due to streamlining the organizational structure and developing a more cost effective pricing structure for the CVSWMD Food Scraps collection program we have been able to steadily lower our per capita rate over the past three years, from $3.10, to $2.10, to $2.00, and now, to $1.00. This means that all member towns will pay half as much to the district, while still receiving the benefits of expanding programs.
All CVSWMD programs focus on creating a Zero Waste Central Vermont. That’s why its programming consistently aims at keeping waste out of Vermont’s two landfills, and reusing, up-cycling, or recycling as much as possible.
CVSWMD programs include: hazardous waste collections (next one is in Montpelier at the Department of Labor Parking lot, 9 a.m. ‘1 p.m.); e-waste, textiles, books, and tire collections; recycling programs, including our vastly expanded recycling collections during Dollar Days on Mondays and Fridays in Barre; school and business composting; school Zero Waste programs which include school waste audits, grants, classroom activities and field trips; residential composting; home composting support via at-cost sales of Soil Savers and Green Cones, and a vast array of information both printed and digital about everything from how to create a toxic free home, to an A to Z guide about the best ways to recycle just about anything you can think of.
CVSWMD member towns are: Barre City, Barre Town, Berlin, Bradford, Calais, Chelsea, East Montpelier, Hardwick, Middlesex, Montpelier, Orange, Plainfield, Tunbridge, Walden, Washington, Williamstown, and Woodbury.
Source:CVSWMD. 9.10.2012.www.cvswmd.org