Q. Can FCA assist in setting up unit-based fees ("pay-as-youthrow")?
Yes. FCA can be a helpful means in developing fair and equitable service fees. It also allows communities involved in pay-as-you-throw programs to assess the effect, in requisites of system costs and revenues, of execute such a program. While a pay-as-you-throw program is implementing, for example, people might choose to reuse or stimulant at higher levels. This behavioural change has a direct consequence on system costs and revenues. FCA can be used to assess and foresee these shifts in costs. One of the troubles some communities face with pay-as-you-Throw programs is balancing systems costs and revenues. Seekonk, Massachusetts, used FCA to realize the base costs for its solid waste system. With that information, the town was able to set its flat and variable fees for its pay-as-you-throw program. While FCA doesn't provide an answer in terms of what a community should charge on a variable-rate basis, it can offer the baseline information to conclude what the base costs are. In some situation, though, rate setting still comes down to a political decision. A community might establish an appropriate rate using FCA but realize that it would not be a great sufficient financial incentive to give confidence people to recycle, which might be a community goal.