City of Ansonia, CT
Program Details
Connecticut Is Facing a Trash Crisis:
Waste disposal capacity in the US is shrinking.
The New England region is expected to lose 40% of its trash disposal capacity in the next 5 years and up to 100% by 2040.
The MIRA incinerator in Hartford, is no longer burning trash; this facility was relied on by Ansonia and 34 neighboring communities, leaving us without a disposal site.
Siting a new incinerator or landfill in our City is not a good option financially or environmentally.
The alternative of trucking CT trash up to 600 miles out of state is expensive and not sustainable. We need a new approach.
We Need Everybody to Reduce Their Waste:
Food scraps make up 20% of the waste we currently throw away and can easily be converted to energy and compost right here in Connecticut.
Weekly Curbside Food Scrap Co-Collection would allow residents to recycle their food scraps with no additional transportation costs.
Removing food waste from the trash and converting those scraps into clean, renewable energy can save us money.
Ansonia Is Leading the Way Towards a Solution:
Ansonia received a $440,000 dollar grant from DEEP to implement a City-wide pilot program.
The pilot program will allow the City and our residents to try the program before deciding if we want to make it permanent. The co-collection pilot program is free to residents.
All households will co-collect trash and food scraps in special color-coded trash bags provided by the town.
If the town adopts the program permanently, we could realize savings of approximately $1.4 million over the first 4 years – savings that would help to lower your trash bill!
A permanent program has an environmental impact equal to adding 7,500 solar panels to Ansonia homes each year, that’s more solar panels than homes!
Here's How You Can Participate:
Residents will receive an allotment free colored-coded bags for the duration of the pilot:
green (8-gallon) bags for food scraps
orange (15-gallon) tall kitchen bags for non-recyclable household trash
Recycling of paper & cardboard and bottles & cans will continue as usual.
Residents should tie and close each of the orange and green bags and place out for collection each week.
The same truck will pick up the bags and bring them to a facility so that the food scraps can be captured and converted to green energy.
Learn more at the links at the top of the page!
More Information
For more information, please contact the Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments (NVCOG)
Contact
Christine O’Neill, NVCOG
49 Leavenworth Street,
Waterbury, CT 06702
ReduceTheTrash@nvcogct.gov
(203) 489-0351