Cost for garbage and yard-waste pickup set to increase

It is likely to cost you more to have your garbage and yard waste picked up because the Cedar Rapids/Linn County Solid Waste Agency plans to charge more to bury it in a landfill or turn it into compost.

The agency's board of directors has approved a tentative new budget that raises the “tipping” fee for garbage 8.6 percent from the current $35 a ton to $38 a ton. At the same time, the new budget raises the fees for yard waste and other compost materials 20 percent from the current $15 a ton to $18 a ton.

The increased fees are slated to go into effect July 1. The agency board casts a final vote on the fees on Dec. 15.

Karmin McShane, the solid waste agency's executive director, this week noted that the hike in fees for tipping - tipping or emptying a load - is the first since 1994

The increased fees should raise an additional $540,000 a year for the agency and bring annual revenue from tipping fees to $6.855 million.

McShane said the extra revenue will help cover the costs for additional landfill monitoring and for the agency's programs that work to divert material from the landfill. She said the agency also will face additional costs to re-close and monitor the agency's Site 1 landfill downriver from downtown Cedar Rapids, which was reopened to take in flood debris. The agency also will have costs to upgrade the gas-capture system at the site, she added.

McShane said the increase in compost fees still won't cover the cost to create compost. The agency, she noted, gives the compost away, and she said it intends to provide compost three inches deep for each of perhaps 1,200 lots where flood-damaged houses will be demolished.

McShane said the increase in tipping fees will have an impact on the cities of Cedar Rapids and Marion, on Linn County agencies and on customers of private haulers throughout the metro area and county.

Mark Jones, superintendent of the city of Cedar Rapids Solid Waste and Recycling Division, said the increased tipping fees will cost the city about $100,000 more a year. The city landfills about 20,000 tons of garbage and directs about 15,000 tons of yard waste, including leaves from the fall leaf pickup, a year. Jones said the new cost spread over 38,000 residential customers would mean an increase of $2.63 a year per household or 21 cents a month.

Tom Newbanks, the city of Marion's public services director, on Tuesday thought the increase in tipping fees could add $20,000 a year in costs to his operation. Newbanks noted that the solid waste agency's plan to raise the cost to handle recyclables from the current $10 a ton to $20 a ton at the agency's Site 2 landfill on Marion's northeast edge also will impact the city of Marion. Cedar Rapids takes its recyclables directly to the recycler.

About 80 percent of what comes into the agency's landfills comes from commercial and industrial users, McShane noted.

She thought the biggest private haulers likely would see an additional $300 a day increase in fees at the agency's Site 2 landfill.

Ted Carter, whose family owns ABC Disposal in Hiawatha, said Tuesday that some of the additional costs likely would be passed on to customers. At the same time, he said ABC Disposal would work to improve how it manages garbage. For instance, the company will look to better pack trucks that now transfer waste to Illinois landfills so the trucks can carry more.

McShane said she thought the price of fuel would prevent more local waste from going to Illinois landfills, though Carter said it still made sense when fuel was at $4 a gallon to ship some to Illinois.

The city of Iowa City's landfill currently charges a tipping fee of $38.50 a ton for Iowa City residents and $43.50 a ton for those in Johnson County outside of Iowa City. The city of Iowa City is not planning a fee increase, Dave Elias, Iowa City's wastewater and landfill superintendent, said Tuesday.