Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian and East Greenwich Town Manager William Sequino announced Tuesday a one-year pilot yard waste program between the two communities.

The move represents a concrete step towards regionalization, which is often talked about in political circles, but seldom followed up with any concrete plans.

The pilot program will allow East Greenwich to deliver up to 600 tons of material to the Warwick compost facility. RIRRC (Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation) sets an annual limit on the amount of yard waste each community is allowed to transport to the landfill. East Greenwich has exceeded that cap in recent years, while Warwick hasn’t thanks to the composting facility located on Sandy Lane.

RIRRC charges $25 for every ton of yard waste over the limit. But the pilot program will allow East Greenwich to deliver up to 600 tons of material to the Warwick compost facility each year. Warwick will charge the town $12.50 per ton, cutting East Greenwich's excess disposal fees in half.

This initiative will not cost Warwick anything, Avedisian said in a press release, and will add a modest sum to the city's coffers each year.

Sequino said he expects the program to cost East Greenwich somewhere in the ballpark of $4,000 next year, meaning that Warwick should gain that sum. Should East Greenwich, for some reason, dispose of 600 tons—the maximum under the agreement—it would cost the town $7,500 and put that same amount into the city’s coffers.

“The idea behind this is that it gets us under the RIRRC’s cap, saves us a little money, and makes Warwick a little money,” said Sequino.

Avedisian said that he expects to announce further consolidations with neighboring communities in the upcoming weeks, but was hesitant to go into specifics.

“[Sequino] and I have had numerous discussions to see where our communities might collaborate to save money and improve the efficiency of our municipal operations,” Avedisian said.

“We’ll have more announcements (in two weeks) and another in the week after that one.”

Avedisian has mentioned combining senior services with the City of Cranston earlier this year, but an interview with Robin Muskian-Schutt, Cranston’s Director of Administration, suggests that Avedisian’s announcements will not involve Cranston.

“We have had some talks but I think both sides became pretty busy with our budgets, but we look forward to further discussions with Warwick,” said Muskian-Schutt.

Muskian-Schutt said the Alan Fung administration views animal control, libraries, and senior services as logical areas for consolidation.

“We’re open to any idea that offers good services to our residents and shows fiscal responsibility at the same time,” said Muskian-Schutt.