New Load Fee Arrives at Foothills Landfill on Sunday
Saturday, August 31, 2013 @ 5:03 AM
Prince George, B.C. – The Regional District of Fraser-Fort George starts collecting the new small load fee for household waste at the Foothills Landfill tomorrow.
The 6-dollar fee will apply to loads of household waste weighing less than 100 kilograms (220 pounds). Speaking on behalf of the regional district’s Environmental Services General Manager Petra Wildaur, Manager of External Relations Renee McCloskey notes that loads which have only recyclables or yard and garden waste will not be charged the fee. “The way the system works is as follows. When you come through the landfill you’re weighed as you enter and then again as you exit, and that’s how we determine the volume of your load and the fee will be assigned as you’re exiting the landfill.” McCloskey says “if you have a mixed load, say half is from cleaning out your flower beds and the other half is household waste, there are two ways to go about it. The first is you just pay the $6 for the full load, or you can have it separated but you’ll have to actually go through the process of weighing twice.”
McCloskey notes that you must have your materials separated. “Obviously we want to encourage people to recycle so if they have a mixed load, all of the recyclables should be separated ahead of time to be put into the appropriate places for recycling and then the waste materials can be deposited into the landfill. And don’t forget it all needs to be covered or secured as well (with tarps or nets, for instance) so we don’t get the litter sprayed all over Foothills Boulevard.”
Now in the unlikely event you’ll be showing up with a load in excess of 100 kilograms, you’ll be charged the regular tipping fee of $62 per ton.
McCloskey says there is an exemption from the new small load fee. “Residents of Electoral Area A have, or will be receiving in their mail, a swipe card which will enable them fifty visits to the landfill per year with their fees waived. The reason for that is that a number of residents in Area A, particularly in Salmon Valley, don’t have transfer station services or any other means to dispose of their regular waste. So it’s a way to ensure that there’s access to those services for those individuals.” Area A includes residents of Salmon Valley, Ness Lake and Nukko Lake.
McCloskey says there are two main reasons the new fee is being instituted. “The first is to make the way that the service is being paid for more equitable, rather than applying, through taxes, a flat fee for all residents. There are many people who only go to the landfill once or twice a year, or maybe they never go because their municipal collection is enough. But they’re paying the same for landfill services as someone who is going a couple of times a month. So it’s a way to equalize that a little. Those who use it more are going to be paying more. And, at the same time, it provides an incentive for people to really start thinking about the amount of waste they’re generating, and thinking about other choices they can be making, either by reducing the amount of waste or making decisions about recycling.”
McCloskey says the revenue generated by the fee will go toward offsetting the operating costs for the landfill. “The Solid Waste Management Services cost us annually $10 million, and far and above everything else within solid waste, Foothills landfill is our biggest expense item. So it will go to offset the cost there.”
McCloskey says it hasn’t gone unnoticed that some people are against the imposition of the fee. “There are people who are used to not paying for something and now there will be a fee for that. But I think when you look around the province you’ll see that what we’re doing is quite in line and in fact is even more generous than solid waste services that you find in other municipalities in terms of fees for waste disposal. So I think in Prince George it’s been more unusual that it’s gone this long without some sort of fee.”
She also notes that this is something new for the area and for staff. “So I think as we’re working through the implementation we can expect that there might be a couple of hiccups. The amount of time it takes to get through the landfill in the next couple of weeks may be a bit longer than what people are accustomed to so we’re asking that people have some patience and understand that this is new to everyone, and everyone is doing the best they can to make this transition as smooth as possible.”
Comments
I live in area A. I usually only go to the landfill about once every four weeks or less
So if my load weighs more than 100kgs I would suppose that I could call it two or three visits or so on even though I’m there once.
If they charge me for over 100kgs I guess that that garbage won’t make it there rather in the ditches by the dump.
I can be just as difficult as RD if need be.
By the way, I am conscious of the environment.
To go to the landfill once a week in my case is way too often
Any thoughts or info to this matter?
The ‘incentive’ to have people think about their waste will be the ‘incentive’ to have people dumping at the road ends and hiking trails throughout the city.
The reason people are not use to paying for taking their garbage to a land fill is because taking garbage to a land fill should be encouraged and not discouraged through gate keepers charging a fee.
The land fill should be covered by property taxes and be free to use for residential garbage. The idea that they can fine someone for a load that is not secure will limit garbage on foothills, but charge a $6 fee will not result in more garbage elsewhere is an odd way of looking at things.
So if I show up with my little trailer, and “we” discover that the load in it weighs more than 220 pounds, but just slightly over that, do I then get charged $62.00, (the per ton rate), or will the “extra” weight be factored into that 62 dollar fee, and added to the six bucks ??
And how will that be calculated? Three cents a pound or so like the first 220?
All this is going to accomplish is a trashier city IMO.
and separating the load. I do not consider two trips of 20 miles each way enviromentally good. When we go to the dump, it is a one stop dumping. House hold, recyclables and other. We would be charged( fined)or have too weigh in and out four times to make the one trip. There are so many good points from many. This is going to be a nightmare for several reasons not a few hiccups. One would also think that if part of the RDFFG thoughts is to encourage recycling, why did they ever get rid of the SWAP SHED! Surly they will be making enough so that they can re open it and hire someone to manage it as in other areas of the province . Especially the many swap type shed around the province that are expanding that part of their recycling endeavors.
One also wonders who cooked up the 100 kilo cut-off? Does anyone realize that’s about the weight of just one good sized man !! Hardly worth driving all the way up there with a quarter of a pickup load !! Guess I won’t be offering my neighbour a chance to throw his stuff in with mine either anymore.
Its gonna be really easy to slip over this weight even if you’re just throwing a few large garbage bags of grass in the back of your pickup, a couple rotten 2X4’s and maybe some kitchen trash.
Yeah, yeah, I know, the “recyclables” go in free, but who’s going to circle the shack twice, or thrice, go back to the end of the line again each time, and sit there waiting his or her turn again to be “evaluated” once more.
Those curbside trash cans are going to get a whole lot heavier in future I suspect, and require extra trips to the dump on each route !! No problem there though, they can just increase our collection fee tax rate to cover that can’t they.
I’m gonna guess that my weekly garbage should be under 100kgs but to have to go weekly is not practical
Area A does not have to pay the expensive water sewer garbage charges we do…but receive a swipe card!!! . I wonder who has to pay for picking up all the litter this is going to generate? No common sense seems to be disappearing.
right on Palomino and tractor
I would use the Summit Lake transfer station, but the last 3 times I went there it was overflowing
Does anyone know the number to call to get the trash cleaned up out of the ditches? Also I know of someone who brings garbage to the dump 2 to 3 times a week during bear season but won’t do this now that there is an extra charge for this. Will this increase bear problems? Maybe yes maybe no but if it does increase homeowners killing bears are they responsible for the disposal of the carcass or is there a number to call for that too?
I have no issues paying that fee but Because people are invariably cheap and I imagine lots will balk at shelling out the $6 the area behind the north scales will be used even more by illegal dumpers.
They closed the swap shed because the same people were there every day shopping for their garage sale on the weekend. They were also getting into fist fights over items in there putting the public & staff at risk. Yes area A get swipe cards, but we do not have weekly garbage pickup like you do, so look at how often you have to go to the landfill versus some without the weekly pick up. The swipe card is good for 50 visits a year, so you are still getting more waste disposal with your 52 weekly pick ups than us without.
I had people literally trying to pull the stuff out of the back of my truck before I had even stopped when taking stuff to the swap shed. Sucks that a bad few ruined what is a good thing. Now most likely those items just ended up in the dump or down the cutbanks.
I hope this fee makes people think twice about what goes into the garbage vs what they can recycle but most likely it will just end up in a ditch somewhere.
How come other cities can manage to keep their swap sheds open? What do they do differently? Surely they can come up with a viable way to keep it open. Maybe a punch card on the way in that has to be returned on the way out in under 30 minutes and visits allowed only once weekly and only enforced when they are the people that perpetually abuse the system. Lots of logistics and maybe this suggestion isn’t feasible but there is definitely a solution to this problem. Too bad a few bad apples ruined this for everyone. And as for fist fights….really, how often did that happen, it strain credulity that it was an ongoing thing, just another reason to not have to bother with it, if idiots are fighting call the cops.
Agreed that they need to bring back the swap shed, even if it’s just one location in town. I would drop stuff off there all the time that wasn’t in good enough shape to justify selling, but definitely in decent enough shape that someone who has nothing would appreciate it. Now all that stuff usually makes its way to the dump, I’ve tried giving a few things away for free on Kijiji but have found that a lot of people just don’t show up when they say they will when its a free item.
Comments for this article are closed.