Prior to implementing the Pay As You Throw (PAYT) Program, all residents living in the Scratch Gravel Solid Waste District paid the same fee to dispose of their solid waste.  However, there was no weight limit on the amount of waste an individual customer could take to the transfer station.  Customers generating very little tonnage paid the same amount as others generating a significant amount of solid waste.  Members of the County Commission and the Scratch Gravel Solid Waste Board wanted to make the solid waste fee more equitable, so they created the Pay As You-throw Program (PAYT).

The average household generates slightly less than 1.5 tons of municipal solid waste in a year. Under the PAYT Program, the solid waste fee paid on your tax bill allows you to take up to 1.5 tons of garbage to the City of Helena Transfer Station.  Once you exceed the tonnage limit, you are billed for every pound over the 1.5-ton limit.

Once a year, at the end of June, you are mailed a solid waste permit to use at the City Transfer Station.  The permit can be used from July 1 through June 30 of the following year.  The solid waste permit has a number on it, which matches an account number assigned to your property.  Your account is given a credit balance equal to 1.5 tons at the beginning of year (July 1).  As you haul in your solid waste, the weight for each load of garbage is applied to the credit balance on your account.  When the 1.5 tons is used, your account goes into a “pay status”.  From this point forward, you are billed for any tonnage you haul to the Transfer Station.  You are sent a bill the first time you exceed the 1.5 tons, and again at the end of the year (June 30) for the total amount you owe on your account.  The bill must be paid by July 31 of each year, or the amount will be added to your tax bill.

Frequently Asked Questions about solid waste permits and the PAYT Program