We have this program and it has brought our town's recycling rate to almost the highest in the state (RI). While it is hard to justify spending money on bags (about $2 per bag) just to throw trash into, it has made us far more aware of recycling and is still a lower price than having a private hauler.

I think this is a great idea in theory but I agree with the statement made in the article, it might just cause people to pursue illegal dumping. In many states (including the one I live in (UT)), recycling is nearly obsolete.

I'm not sure obsolete means what you think it means.

I would LOVE a scheme like this. This year my family and I have only put our bin out once for kerbside collection and next year we are not planning on putting it out at all.
We put out less than 100gms per week of non recyclable waste and the rest is reused, recycled or composted: http://myzerowaste.com

This makes a lot of sense. Where I used to live (Cambridge, UK) all collections were free and the council provided lots of options for recycling etc and it was great. Now I live in Bath and we have to pay for green waste collections (and the tip won't take more than a little bit from each person if you take it there) so I have no idea what people do with their garden waste except put it into the regular collection where it won't get recycled. We paid because it's simpler to get them to collect it, but it struck me as mad that you have to pay for that, and not for the regular rubbish collection.

I think it depends if the town has kerbside recycling. Otherwise it could punish low-income families who do not have the means to pay for an expensive recycling service and who may not have a vehicle to travel far away to recycle. (And believe me, in many small towns you have to travel many miles to find somewhere to do so.)

If a town offers kerbside or local recycling then I think it could possibly work well. Alas, many towns/cities do not.

We have blue and green bins here. Blue are for plastics and cardboard ect. where the green is for composting. They accept 99% of food waste and more than what you would put into your compost.

Some neighbor communities have to pay for bags. My friends who live there find it actually cheaper to bring it to the dump vs paying the fee. (the community doesn't offer recycling either)

Offering the choice of pick up and then charging for bags is completely acceptable.

My town does PAYT and it has done wonders to increase the recycling rate.

We have it in my town and I think it is fantastic. The increase in recycling was dramatic. We have free curbside recycling but many people were not using it before. I find that inexcusable. Since the implementation of PAYT (pay as you throw), recycling is way up. There are still some too lazy to recycle, but at least they are benefiting the city with revenue from all of the blue bags they have to buy.

My husband and I pay 4 dollars a month for the trash bags. We recycle, compost, and have an in-sink disposal. It is not difficult to produce a low volume of waste.

Rebekkap, yes you're right. Ooops! I meant to say, in our state (at least in my area) recycling is non-existent unless you want to drive over an hour to "go green."

I think this would be great. My city has several recycling services and free recycling drop-off centers all over, so I think it would work pretty well.

The drawbacks of illegal dumping and perhaps people keeping more trash around their premises until they can go dump it somewhere, might be a prohibitive problem though.

I was out at my sister's acreage yesterday and when we took a walk we saw several bags of leaves dumped in the ditches. She was irritated because she along with others who live along the country road have to pick those bags up. So, if illegal dumping increased, it would really be a burden on those who live on the country roads near the city.