The cost for just about everything is going up these days, including disposing of waste at recycling facilities in the Cowichan Valley.
Disposal fees for some materials accepted at the Bings Creek, Peerless Road and Meade Creek recycling centres will increase by 11 per cent beginning on June 1, according to a Cowichan Valley Regional District (CVRD) press release.
Fees for garbage will increase from $148/tonne to $164/tonne while food and organic waste fees will climb from $112/tonne to $125/tonne. Mattress disposal fees will go from $13/unit to $15/unit.
Furthermore, the CVRD is also introducing disposal fees for tires with rims and commercial yard waste starting June 1. Residential yard waste, however, will remain free. The fee to dispose of tires with rims will be $6 per unit while the fee for commercial yard waste will be $60/tonne.
One of the reasons cited by the CVRD for the increase is the soaring price of fuel.
“As the CVRD does not update the Recycling Centre disposal fees at the same frequency as the contract increases, larger jumps in fees are sometimes required to balance the solid waste budget,” Melissa Tokarek, the CVRD’s manager of policy and planning, recycling and waste management, said in the release. “It’s always a tough decision to increase fees for any of our services, but it’s sometimes necessary.”
Another reason is due to recent contract negotiations with a landfill in Washington state that receives CVRD waste. There is no local landfill and limited landfill capacity on Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland, resulting in the CVRD exporting its garbage and other waste to contracted landfills.
In the release, the CVRD says it is currently subsidizing the “true cost of landfilling garbage” by approximately $20 per tonne and is planning to reevaluate in order “to determine how this practice fits with the region’s Solid Waste Management Plant goals.”
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