I have spoken with a large number of people living in Valley
East and other communities in the region and have come to the
conclusion that the residential tipping fee charges are nothing
more than a nuisance and annoyance which is being considered as
a hidden tax on people who are simply being good citizens. We
are charging people for bringing their garbage to our landfill
sites when we should be thanking them.
I will therefore be recommending to Council that we eliminate
the tipping fee charge for residents who are bringing in garbage
and waste from their homes. I would like this to be part of a
major public awareness campaign to encourage people to clean up
their property and perhaps even to get together with their
neighbours to clean up the ditches and green areas around their
subdivision as part of a community face-lift. As it stands now,
if people do something like this they are charged at the
landfill site for their good deed.
It is hoped that the elimination of the tipping fee may have
some impact on the amount of garbage that is being dumped in the
forests and trails, but people who are going to do something
like that likely won’t stop just because we take away the
tipping fees. What I am expecting is that individual families,
schools or groups and organizations may take it upon themselves
to go out and clean up some of the garbage that has been
illegally dumped in order to help beautify the community. They
can gather several trucks on a Saturday morning and clean things
up for a few hours as part of a special community project. And
they won’t be charged $3 or more for every load they bring in.
While some will argue that it is only $3 a load for a tipping
fee, it isn’t the amount of money that is bothering people. It
is the fact that people are being charged at all for driving
their own garbage to the dump instead of putting it out for the
regular garbage pickup. It
makes residents feel as if the City is nickel & diming them for
small change every time they turn around. And then they let
something like $800,000 in bus ticket revenue go uncollected.
That is what residents are upset about.
The City goes after
regular citizens for pocket change all the time and then ignore
the big ticket items. All those little items add up to a lot of
money over the course of a year and residents are saying “enough
already”.
Another spin off is that with no need to weigh vehicles as
closely while entering or exiting, the traffic flow will be a
lot better at the entrances during “rush hours”. If people enjoy
a much better experience when they come to the landfill site,
they may take more time to drop off different parts of their
load in the recycle sections instead of just dumping everything
in the main landfill site in order to get back in the line up to
leave. They won’t be in as much of a rush to get out.
The elimination of the landfill tipping fees for residential
garbage is long overdue and the benefit to the community as a
whole along with the reduced need for city workers to clean up
illegally dumped garbage or to pick up the waste material at the
individual residences will more than make up for the loss of
revenue generated in tipping fees. This one small gesture by the
City may be what generates a whole new positive attitude towards
protecting and preserving our natural environment.
http://www.northernlife.ca/news/elections/municipal/2014/ward5/26-Kirwan-tipping-fees.aspx
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