Under a Butler County Solid Waste Management Plan recently adopted for the next 15 years, fees charged for disposing of trash will rise slightly. Not this year, and not in 2019, but on Jan. 1, 2020.
There’s good news about that fee increase, of 18 cents per ton of disposed waste: Even after it rises from 82 cents per ton to $1 per ton in 2020, the fee will be half what it was early this decade, when it was $2 per ton.
Butler County officials recently approved the plan, as did Hamilton City Council, which as the county’s largest city had veto power over the plan. The solid waste generation fee is a charge that is assessed on all waste that is generated in Butler County and disposed of in Ohio landfills.
“Butler County Solid Waste District has made strides to reduce the solid-waste generation fee from a high of $2 a ton to $1 a ton in 2013,” said Anne Fiehrer Flaig, director of the Butler County Recycling & Solid Waste District. “We actually had an additional fee reduction again in 2014, bringing the current fee to 82 cents a ton.”
“Our fee reduction was unprecedented in the state of Ohio,” Fiehrer Flaig told Hamilton officials. “We are very cost-conscious, and we are truly able to operate, (and) provide programming to citizens.”
All the programming the district has had during the past 10 years will continue, including reduction of household hazardous waste, collection of Freon-using appliances and an electronic waste program that recycles televisions and other electronics.
The plan already has preliminary approval from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.
One significant change in the plan from the past is the district will be required to estimate the greenhouse gases reduced through recycling in the county, Fiehrer Flaig told this media outlet.
“They want us to be able to calculate an impact for that,” Fiehrer Flaig said. “Some people find that controversial, depending on your world view.”
The new plan also gives the waste district the option of adding recycling incentives.
There’s good news about that fee increase, of 18 cents per ton of disposed waste: Even after it rises from 82 cents per ton to $1 per ton in 2020, the fee will be half what it was early this decade, when it was $2 per ton.
Butler County officials recently approved the plan, as did Hamilton City Council, which as the county’s largest city had veto power over the plan. The solid waste generation fee is a charge that is assessed on all waste that is generated in Butler County and disposed of in Ohio landfills.
“Butler County Solid Waste District has made strides to reduce the solid-waste generation fee from a high of $2 a ton to $1 a ton in 2013,” said Anne Fiehrer Flaig, director of the Butler County Recycling & Solid Waste District. “We actually had an additional fee reduction again in 2014, bringing the current fee to 82 cents a ton.”
“Our fee reduction was unprecedented in the state of Ohio,” Fiehrer Flaig told Hamilton officials. “We are very cost-conscious, and we are truly able to operate, (and) provide programming to citizens.”
All the programming the district has had during the past 10 years will continue, including reduction of household hazardous waste, collection of Freon-using appliances and an electronic waste program that recycles televisions and other electronics.
“We consider this (2020 increase) a ‘just-in-time’ funding mechanism to ensure that we have sufficient funds to maintain all of the programs that are outlined in the plan,” she told Hamilton officials.
The plan already has preliminary approval from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.
One significant change in the plan from the past is the district will be required to estimate the greenhouse gases reduced through recycling in the county, Fiehrer Flaig told this media outlet.
“They want us to be able to calculate an impact for that,” Fiehrer Flaig said. “Some people find that controversial, depending on your world view.”
The new plan also gives the waste district the option of adding recycling incentives.
To read the full story, visit https://www.daytondailynews.com/news/local-govt–politics/what-new-year-garbage-plan-means-for-costs-butler-county/8v0nDvqvvwuTacq6gwiUfP/.