WELLINGTON COUNTY – More than half of surveyed residents are against the county implementing a minimum waste fee.
Approved for information during a Solid Waste Services committee meeting Tuesday morning, a new report said while it's "challenging" to predict resident behaviour towards the new fee with certainty, 60 per cent of surveyed residents said they would not use the county's waste transfer stations if a minimum fee was implemented.
This follows the committee's decision to investigate implementing a minimum waste fee to discourage residents from taking advantage of the "convenience" of dropping off household waste and recycling directly at their closest waste facility rather than using curbside collection services.
A minimum waste fee is typically between $5 to $10.
"A minimum fee would presumably result in less small loads of waste being delivered to the sites, as the minimum fee would work as an incentive to use the curbside collection service for household waste," said staff in the report. "Fewer small loads of waste would allow space and trucking resources to be allocated towards separating and managing new waste materials for diversion from landfill."
Two local municipalities shared that the overall traffic to their waste sites decreased after implementing a minimum waste fee.
Of the 15 municipalities with minimum waste fees included in the report, the average minimum fee per load is $11.33.
While less supportive of a $10 fee, those who bring in larger loads said they would continue to use the waste facilities with a minimum fee of $5.
Implementing a minimum waste fee would mean approximately $196,000 in additional revenue for the county.
Isabel Buckmaster is the Local Journalism Initiative reporter for GuelphToday. LJI is a federally-funded program.
