WEST HARTFORD – Due to concerns about enforcement and the financial impact on citizens, the City Council voted Wednesday morning not to move forward with a pilot project for a mandatory garbage collection program with unit-based pricing.

The program would have required residents to purchase special garbage bags from the city — ranging from 90 cents to $2.50 per bag, depending on the size — to reduce the amount of trash thrown away. Revenue from the bags would have enabled a curbside food scraps pickup program at no additional cost to residents.

The city council is likely to reject a $1.5 million grant from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection that would help cover costs associated with the pilot project.

“I don’t think there’s a consensus,” Mayor Shari Cantor said at the end of a 90-minute virtual meeting. Cantor then asked any City Council members interested in moving the plan forward to raise their hand. No one raised their hand.

“It looks like people don’t want to continue with unit-based pricing as presented,” Cantor said.

The decision came after City Council members expressed concerns about various aspects of the plan presented by City Manager Rick Ledwith and City Public Works Director John Phillips. Most of those concerns revolved around code enforcement, fines and the additional costs of considering garbage collection a utility rather than a service.

“For me, this is a punishment from day one,” said Alberto Cortes, a Republican council member. “As soon as we pay for the bags, it becomes a punishment. I lose the election. I’m stuck with this orange bag.”

Ledwith made it clear that both purchasing the bags and enforcing them – warnings that can result in fines of $50 or more if not used – are an important part of a successful unit-based program.

“Pricing the bags does two things: It helps change behavior,” Ledwith said, adding that about 60 percent of the waste thrown into the city’s green bins doesn’t belong there. “If we gave everyone free bags … and you had unlimited bags, that wouldn’t change your behavior. We believe it changes that behavior. People will learn to recycle more and minimize the number of bags they put in the green bin.”

Cantor said if West Hartford were to implement a citywide, unit-based pricing program, it would be the first in the state to do so. And she feared failure could mean the state takes a step backward.

“I still have concerns that we as a community are not quite ready to meet the timeline of DEEP, which is pretty tight,” Cantor said. “We want it to be successful. If we’re not successful … then I think we’re taking a step back. It’s a critical step for the community. It’s a critical step for the state.”

The program would have been applicable to both single-family homes and two- to three-family homes. Larger multi-family homes would not have been included. And Ledwith noted that they have worked to slowly establish the program in the city by giving residents who do not comply several warnings before fines are issued. He also mentioned considerations that could be made for residents who find themselves in distress.

The City Council’s rejection of the proposal to reduce the amount of garbage produced by citizens comes – at least for now – at a time when city leaders have declared that West Hartford and the state are facing a “garbage crisis.”

Instead, the mayor directed Ledwith and Phillips to come back to the table with a citywide food waste management program similar to one tested in one neighborhood. About half of those households have participated in the program and have diverted over 100,000 pounds from the city’s waste stream by separating food waste from their normal waste stream. The program would likely be voluntary and could be funded by American Rescue Plan Act funds if DEEP withdraws its $1.5 million grant, which may be contingent on unit-based pricing.

“We will continue our discussions with DEEP about a future partnership or look for alternative grants if DEEP does unit-based pricing or nothing else. I hope that’s not the case,” Cantor said. “There’s a reason nobody has implemented unit-based pricing yet, because it’s complicated. There are concerns. It’s a difficult program. There are communities that have implemented it successfully. I think without certain structural changes or mandates from the state, it’s going to be difficult for communities to implement it citywide.”