I am a resident of Middletown, CT, USA, deeply affected by an institutional injustice created by our city. The most vulnerable residents of our community are suffering due to the current state of affairs in our sanitation district. The city has callously disregarded our concerns and marginalized us; so now it is time to stand up and be counted!

How did we get here? It all started in late 2022 when Mayor Ben Florsheim and the Public Works Departments entered into a contract with Waste Zero Metrics to use state grant money to experiment with waste reduction in the city of Middletown. Over time the city made unilateral decisions without community input to modify our normal sanitation service into a Unit-based-pricing system (branded Save-As-You-Throw) where each bag of trash is itemized and payed for by the subscriber. This has resulted in an obligation to pay for our sanitation services, administrative fees, and purchase intentionally overpriced proprietary plastic bags (exclusively from Waste Zero) and institute an austerity program through financial manipulation. This is an unfair burden on those least able to bear it - the low-income families and individuals who previously depended on the collective efficacy of the sanitation district every day.

Who does this effect, and why should you care if you're not in the sanitation district? First consider that a 2023 Datahaven report found Middletown to be a city of 47,717 residents - 36% of whom are people of color. Of the town’s 20,089 households, only 54% are homeowner households. 39% of Middletown’s households are cost-burdened, meaning they spend at least 30 percent of their total income on housing expenses. 

The Sanitation District was formed by Special Act No. 466, Section of the legislature, and Chapter VII § 1 of the City Charter in 1951 and amended in 2008. Today, the district serves 2,817 households (just 14% of all the households in the city!) and functions like a labor union - everyone uses the same service and the expenses are diffused amongst the participating community. Collective efficacy and the spirit of cooperation that were once the hallmarks of our sanitation district have now been stripped away by people who are unaffected by the policy change, and done in favor of crony capitalistic micro-transactions. These vulnerable, cost burdened people are the ones penalized by this inequality while the vast majority continue on with business as usual and have no incentive (if this truly is an imminent crisis) for to reduce their own waste. You likely have heard advocates for SAYT, lost of whom reside outside the district or are personally benefitting from the policy change, gaslighting with claims that this is a collective action and "everyone" needs to pitch in. Don't be fooled: when they say everyone they mean us, and not them.

Furthermore so, the city has justified their undemocratic revisions through more alarmist and hyperbolic threats of an impending "trash crisis"; Again, they have only imposed this waste reduction scheme against the city's minority population while allowing the remaining 86% in the richest parts of the city to do absolutely nothing differently. They've also carved our special exemptions for the biggest producers of waste, thus leaving the most vulnerable to suffer the added costs.

We have taken our concerns to the city officials, and rather than engage in meaningful discussion, they have repeatedly lied about the successes of the program and dismissed us; going as far as obstructing multiple lawful requests for releases of program data under the Freedom of Information Act. Statistics reported by Public Works have been admitted as "unscientific" and they've employed purposefully vague definitions of compliance to simultaneously claim an 85% compliance rate but also deny services to hundreds of subscribers!

Worse still, they have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on "community champions" (AstroTurf support) and developing an Artificial Intelligence augmented camera system to help identify and punish non-compliant residents with denials of services. As of 09-03-2024 there will now be monetary fines applied to our semi-annual bills for $30.00 when we are deemed "non-compliant". 

Thinking of opting out of the sanitation district and SAYT? Good luck! You will still be charged 150.00 per year even though you are not receiving any services from the city, and you are unlikely to find a private hauler to take your trash since they don't accept customers inside the sanitation district because it's a trapped & monopolized market.

On numerous occasions, the President of Waste Zero Metrics, Mark Dancy has given deceptive and outright dishonest presentations about SAYT program. Most recently on 09-03-2024 he falsely compared the cost of 65 gallon cart service to 95 gallon cart service in an attempt to mislead the City Common Council on the savings his program offers.

In a separate conversation I had with Mr. Dancy at a community outreach meeting he advocated for the use of "Behavioral economics", and told me I would understand the program better if I read two books by economist Richard Thaler (Misbehaving and Nudge). What Mr. Dancy was advocating for is an intentionally flawed rollout of SAYT so that education for the residents about the program would be ineffective, and they would squander the bags the city initially provided for free. In behavioral economics this is called a Nudge and it is designed so that the target makes a bad decision and then subsequently is led to believe somebody else could help him or her make a better choice; Enter Waste Zero.

This is especially unethical since the city sanitation bags are exclusively sold by from Mr. Dancy's company so no one else could profit from this set up. Once again, the bags are coercively priced so the buyer experiences sticker shock and would then begin to comply with the program to avoid unnecessary expenses. Of course all of this only further enriches Mr. Dancy with profits.

We call upon Middletown Public Works to restore economic and social justice within their operations by immediately discontinuing the unjust and predatory Save-As-You-Throw program and terminating all contracts with Mark Dancy and Waste Zero Metrics for their manipulative and predatory behavior. We urge them to review their policies with fairness at heart; ensuring that all residents have equal access to services regardless of their income level or social status and that any inequality that results from public policy should always be structured in a way that is to the benefit of the most vulnerable.

Trash is piling up on our streets and blighting our city. Nusance animal populations and vectors for disease have increased, and criminals are taking note of the lack of community caretaking. Our overall public health is in decline as smelly and unsightly garbage is left on our streets as punitive measure against dissidents. All this is happening while city officials are getting rich and winning bogus awards for feux green policies. 

As we collect signatures I will continually go to common council and committee meetings and bring your voices of dissent forward. Pease sign this petition if you believe in a fairer future for all Middletown residents - where everyone is treated equally under public services like sanitation. Your signature will make a difference!