The children's author, Shel Silverstein, wrote a poem about a little girl named Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout who wouldn't take the garbage out, and the consequences of her inaction. The governor and the state Legislature should all get a copy of the poem.

The state of Connecticut has developed five trash-to-energy plants, the largest being the one in Hartford. It handles one-third of all the trash disposed of in Connecticut. That plant was originally a coal-fired electric generating plant. It was converted to a trash-to-energy plant over 40 years ago to generate electricity by burning trash instead of coal. The plant incinerates trash that is not recyclable, landfills the ash and does so in an environmentally sensitive manner. The plant was recently inoperative due to many mechanical problems and needs to be updated.

Thirteen years ago, the Materials Innovation and Recycling Authority (MIRA), which operates the Hartford plant, began planning for an update of the aging plant. And five years ago MIRA launched its current effort to do so, estimating that the new operation would be running by 2022. The renovation effort reached a milestone eight months ago when MIRA reached an agreement with a contractor, Sacyr Rooney Recovery Team, to do the renovation at an estimated cost of $330 million. Unfortunately, the state and the regional municipalities that dispose of their waste through the Hartford facility refused to finance the renovation because of its high cost. The municipalities are paying $93 per ton in tipping fees to cover the current operating expenses. To cover the renovations, tipping fees would increase to as much as $145 per ton.