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CRD wants to keep more garbage on Island

To slow the export of trash off-Island, tipping fees at Hartland Landfill should be lowered by $5 a tonne next year, Capital Regional District staff are recommending.
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Hartland Landfill's $110 per tonne tipping fee is among the lowest on Vancouver Island, but it’s higher than the $80 per tonne fee in Metro Vancouver, says a Capital Regional District staff report.

To slow the export of trash off-Island, tipping fees at Hartland Landfill should be lowered by $5 a tonne next year, Capital Regional District staff are recommending. 

The move, if approved by the CRD board, would result in a drop in revenue to the CRD of about $650,000 a year.

CRD staff say the decrease is necessary to both maintain revenue to sustain solid waste operations and recycling programs and to stop the flow of waste to other jurisdictions.

While the current $110 per tonne tipping fee at Hartland is among the lowest on Vancouver Island, it’s higher than the $80 per tonne fee in Metro Vancouver and tipping fees in Washington state that are in the $60 per tonne range, the report says.

The CRD has a $20-million reserve fund for landfill and recycling operations. Half is earmarked for natural gas infrastructure but the balance is unencumbered, says a staff report to be considered by the environmental services committee.

Colwood Mayor Carol Hamilton supports the decrease. She said setting the right tipping fee is a balancing act.

“There has to be a fee for service there, definitely. It takes money to operate. You also need to balance that against people just not taking their waste inappropriately and sideline dumping,” Hamilton said.

“They play within a margin. Staff look and research across the region what the numbers are like and try to keep us within that range.”

Of the six private haulers that transport 65 per cent of the waste over Hartland scales, at least two are known to be moving at least some waste out of the region, says the report.

Six of 13 municipalities in the CRD — Victoria, Oak Bay, Saanich, Esquimalt, View Royal, and Sidney — have municipal garbage collection, but those six account for only 13 per cent of total tonnage at the dump. Private haulers account for the rest.

A separate backgrounder report notes that the province has resisted efforts by regional governments such as the CRD for “flow control” — the authority to control movement and disposal of recyclables or solid waste.

That lack of authority is seen as a major challenge as the CRD explores “integrated resource management” options as part of the sewage treatment program. Sewage sludge would be mixed with solid wastes such as food scraps and processed to create revenue by, for example, generating electricity, heat or fuel.

Stew Young, owner of Alpine Disposal and Recycling, said lowering the tipping fee is wrong-headed.

Young, who is mayor of Langford but does not serve as a Langford director at the CRD, said a higher tipping fee encourages more recycling.

“Recycling costs more money than burying it. So if you lower the tipping fee, you’re going to actually have people think they can bury it again,” Young said.

“They’re going to open the doors up there again for a product that could be recycled or could have another use for it.”

bcleverley@timescolonist.com