New Landfill Rates

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Permalink Reply by Harper on January 28, 2010 at 9:18am

Roger said:

“Poor people who use our landfill will pay unreasonable prices starting Feb 1, 2010.”

The key word in that statement is “unreasonable”. As a local government facility, use fees must cover cost, or taxpayers will have to subsidize landfill use. Since waste from outside the county finds its way to the landfill, I would object to this, as local taxpayers would be subsidizing someone else’s problem.

Fees could also be set to produce a profit for use by county government, but this would result in even more outrageous charges.

What seems most reasonable to me are fees that result in an overall break even operation. For all I know the new fees are those needed to match operation costs.

But we should also look at how those fees are allocated among those bringing waste to the landfill. Are they fair and appropriate? Are they “reasonable”?

Most of the waste handled comes from commercial haulers. Their rates are based on tonnage. There is a strong correlation in the life of the landfill and the tonnage that can be contained. Thus tonnage is an appropriate basis for fees. From the link provided by Roger we see that the new commercial rate for general waste is $32.00 plus $2.50 plus sales tax. Dividing ton weight by fee amount gives us a rate of about 57lb per dollar.

Now let’s look at fees assessed on individuals bringing household waste in a car. With a minimum fee of $10, one would have to load 570lb of waste in the car to match the commercial rate of 57lb per dollar. Is that even possible? Are there any studies that might show what the average weight from car delivered waste that would justify a $10 fee? My guess is that the average would be around a 100lb per car and the fee about five times greater that commercial rates. Is this fair, appropriate, and reasonable? If the small volume from cars necessitated a large increase in manpower and administration cost, the higher rate might well be justified. But I’ve been to the landfill and I don’t see a long line of cars and extra landfill personnel handling them. If there is a reason for small quantities of waste being charged a rate five times that of commercial rates, I can’t see it.

The following is what I would expect from the unreasonable rates on individuals:

1. Individuals will be driven to using commercial service. Three bags of household waste delivered once a week by car will incur a $520 yearly cost. It’s much cheaper to hire a commercial service.

2. Individuals of limited financial status will be encouraged to dispose of their waste in an unlawful manor. Don’t we already have a problem with trash being dumped in remote areas?

3. Some individuals may elect to reduce the volume and waste cost by burning. Is this what we want?

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Permalink Reply by Shelli Russell on January 28, 2010 at 11:30am

I just spoke with Roger Lawrence, the Executive Director at the Saline County RSWMD and got the following info from him.

Cars & suvs will actually pay one dollar less than they normally do, and this will actually save trips to the bank for the landfill staff, since they will be dealing with numbers rounded to $5 more often than not.
Now = $11
Feb 1st = $10

Pickup Trucks - you can fit more trash in the back of a pickup than you can with a car or suv.
Now = $11
Feb 1st = $15

Trailers - the kind you pull behind a pickup truck
Now = $11
Feb 1st = $25

If Roger (the one who posted this topic) is concerned about poor people paying to get rid of their trash, the average person's rate will actually go down. Thanks Roger for alerting us to these price differences. If the readers didn't notice - as I didn't when I first saw this post from my phone - Roger has included a pdf detailing all the rate changes to come on February 1st, 2010.

Now let's think about the changes...

Bring an suv with trash in it. You can probably fit 8-10 bags in there. Now, if you have a regular trash service, how much are you able to fit in your little rolling dumpster per week? Not 10 bags!

And what if you drive up in a pickup truck? My dad's got an F150 with a full back seat, so the bed is shorter than normal trucks. I would bet you could fit 15 bags on the bottom of the truck plus a layer of at least 10 more on top with bungees. You're only paying an extra $4 from what was $11 for those extra 15 bags more than a carload would have.

Let's skip to the trailer load now. I've been in a 10 ft x 6 ft trailer for a couple of parades, and I know it held around 20 people for one Bryant Christmas parade, so we're looking at likely 100+ bags of trash for only $25. So what if you did used to pay $11 for it? You were getting a steal, and now it's time to pay the right price for all that garbage.

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