SMITHFIELD — Faced with a bill for sending too much trash to the Central Landfill, the Town of Smithfield has decided that residents are going to have to recycle.

Or else.

The penalty? Those who don’t recycle get to keep their trash, because the town won’t pick it up.

That’s the word from Town Manager Stanley J. Usovicz Jr., who sent a letter to all town residents laying down the law. The decree is to go into effect March 12.

“Our goal is 100 percent residential participation in the mandatory recycling program,” Usovicz wrote.

This is a first for Rhode Island, according to Sarah Kite, the town’s recycling coordinator.

“Other communities have done it here and there,” Kite said. “But we are the first municipality to take this on as part of everyday life.”

Usovicz said that in the previous fiscal year Smithfield paid nearly $50,000 because the town produced 963 tons of trash beyond its allotted amount, which Kite identified as 8,449 tons.

Not only is the town paying more than it should, Usovicz and Kite said, but it also is missing out on some revenue. If a community recycles 20 percent or more of its trash, it is in line for a payout from the Municipal Recycling Incentive Program.

“We were not eligible to receive a share” under the program, Usovicz said, “because our recycling rate was 18.39 percent. This means we lost out on an additional $7,000-$8,000.”

Those figures might seem minuscule for a city the size of Providence or its neighbors, but they are significant in Smithfield, which has a population of 20,000.

“Some communities get back over $100,000,” Kite said. “Warwick got back a huge check. So did East Providence. We have been missing out on that money for the past couple of years because we have not been able to achieve that 20 percent recycling diversion rate.”

Kite said that the annual trash tonnage figures are going to be changing over the next few years. The figure will rise slightly next year, she said, “but the year after that it plunges down, so we are really up against it.”

The recycling coordinator said that the letter spurred scores of residents to request new recycling bins the day after it was received. “They are definitely stepping up to the plate,” she said.

As for the details of the new policy, she said, that is something that will evolve as time goes by.

“If someone doesn’t have a whole lot of recycling, that’s fine,” she said. “It’s just about getting people into the habit of bringing it out. Even if you only have one bottle, one can, we want to make sure we are recapturing it. We are encouraging people to bring the bins out every week. The more you get into the habit the more you will see how much you can pull out of your own garbage. One day we will have more recycling than trash — that would be the ultimate goal.”

Kite said that also the policy might arrive as a surprise to many, it’s really nothing new. The ordinance has been on the books for years, she said. It simply has never before been enforced.

As for difficulties to be encountered in complying with the new program, Kite said that new residents who have not received bins, and residents whose recycling bins “are held together with duct tape, bungee cords, a wish and a prayer” can replace them at $5 each by going to the Department of Public Works garage on Spragueville Road between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m.

She said if residents for some reason are unable to go to the DPW site, they should contact her at (401) 233-1034 for other arrangements.

Those who are uncertain which items to recycle can find out by checking the back of a calendar that they should have received with the letter from the town manager.

Kite said that for the time being, in order to avoid confusion, residents who see the recycling truck come before the garbage truck should leave their bins on the sidewalk until after the trash is picked up. “We ask your patience while we fine-tune the program,” she said.

tmorgan@projo.com