GREENWICH — The town is looking to expand a program that removes organics from the waste stream in the Greenwich Public Schools — using more than $5,000 in funds resulting from the sale of nips — the ubiquitous tiny plastic bottles of alcohol.
Under a new Connecticut program, a five-cent surcharge on the sale of each 50 milliliter bottle of alcohol is returned to the municipality where the item was sold. In Greenwich, that has translated into a $5,228 grant to the town in the first six months of the program, with more to come in the future.
“The purpose of the money is to assist in litter management, debris and waste reduction as a whole,” Town Director of Environmental Affairs Pat Sesto said. “It is the town’s discretion on how to apply those funds.”
Sesto proposed using the funds to install sorting stations at seven additional schools that remove organic material from other solid waste and launching a 23-week pilot program to haul organics from New Lebanon School, she told the Board of Estimate and Taxation’s Budget Committee on Tuesday.
“Getting organics out of our solid waste is critical,” Sesto said. “They weigh a fair amount, and when it comes to waste energy, they take more heat from the incinerators. Getting them out of our waste stream has value to us as it saves us expenses going to the incinerator. It’s more sustainable because we’re taking the organics out of the waste stream so they can be composted and used more productively.”
It would also create a learning opportunity for the students, who can teach their families to do the same at home, she said. .
Adding the sorting stations at seven schools would expand a pilot program from Waste Free Greenwich from six schools to 13. The program, which was put together by town resident Julie DesChamps, has reduced waste 55 percent, Sesto said.
“Once the sorting stations are paid for, the volunteers will train the students in how to use them and we have posters the schools will display,” DesChamps said.
The program proposed for New Lebanon, would be new to the school district, she said. Westport and Wilton use similar programs, with students separating out food scraps in the cafeteria. Those scraps are then hauled to a licensed facility to be processed into compost.
The pilot would begin in the spring at a cost of nearly $2,000, DesChamps said.
“We will see what the successes are, what are the challenges and if we want to expand it,” she said.
Nickels for nips
Under the state program, which began last Oct. 1, wholesalers collect the surcharge when delivering nips to stores, which charge customers a nickel per bottle. Every six months, in April and in October, wholesalers must report their sales to the state.
The state requires that the money collected be used “for environmental measures to reduce solid waste generation” in the municipality where the sales were made.
The first batch of money for the sale of 104,560 of the single-serving spirits in town was issued through the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Waste Reduction program.
The BET Budget Committee voted 2-1, with on abstention, to send Sesto’s recommendations to the full BET for consideration.
Committee chair Leslie Tarkington, who was the dissenting vote, asked why the state statute sent the money to the town Conservation Commission, which Sesto oversees, and not the Department of Public Works. Tarkington suggested there were other uses for the money, including one that would have a big impact on her neighborhood.
“It’s becoming more and more that the departments are deciding how we’re going to spend our money, and we have to look at our budget,” Tarkington said. “It remains my opinion that while these are really good things to do and I am a recycling fanatic, there is a responsibility to look ahead and understand the budget and precedent.”
She suggested that since there would be an ongoing revenue stream, the funds could be used for storm drains.
“I happen to be very sensitive about this because of my area of town,” Tarkington said, citing the frequency of flooding there. “The town has put new, very large storm drains in some parts but they are totally covered in debris. I think there’s lots of things we need to talk about in how we spend this money.”
Budget Committee member Nisha Arora abstained, and members Leslie Moriarty and Laura Erickson voted in favor of sending the proposal to the full BET for consideration Monday.
Erickson praised the proposed “expansion of what has already proven to be significant success story” with the pilot program to remove organics from the waste stream.
