New Fee to Help Cover Waste Disposal Costs

In 2002, the City of Dayton instituted a $5.00 monthly waste disposal fee to cover costs of disposing waste at the Montgomery County transfer station, from which the waste is then transported to a landfill.

Other area cities that also have a similar fee in place include: Centerville ($180/yr.), Englewood ($124/yr.), Riverside ($123/yr.), Trotwood ($113/yr.) and Union ($116/yr.).

The annual charge will be used in part to pay for what Montgomery County charges users of the transfer station. The County’s charge - commonly referred to as a “tipping fee” - is $33.00 per ton of waste. For the City of Dayton, it equates to about $2.4 million a year.

The waste disposal fee appears as part of the City of Dayton utility bill. The amount will be itemized separately on the bill as a “Waste Disposal Fee.”  Bulky Waste pick-up service continues to be provided at no charge.

Residents are encouraged to recycle their household trash as much as possible to reduce the waste stream going to the landfill.  The more we recycle as a community, the less we pay for disposing of waste in the landfill.

Below are some basic questions and answers about the new fee.

The national, state and local economies have taken a dramatic downturn recently. Implementing this fee will allow the City to continue to offer the services residents have come to expect.

Residential disposal fees are billed on a quarterly basis and will be itemized on the City’s water utility bill that you currently receive.

The individual currently paying the utility bill will most likely be the one who will be pay the fee. The property owner is ultimately responsible, however, landlords may pass the cost on to their tenants.

The fee helps pay for the costs of disposing waste. This includes the contents of the 90-gallon containers and the bulk waste that is generated by city residents.

While today’s bad economic conditions make it necessary to generate more money to provide services, City officials hope that the need for the fee will diminish as the economy rebounds.

By using the blue bins and recycling the contents of your daily trash, you can help keep the costs of waste disposal down. The more we recycle, the less waste we have going to the landfill. In addition, following waste collection guidelines (i.e., scheduling bulk waste pickups, putting out your containers in the proper manner at the proper time, etc.) will help keep costs down.

· It depends. The Huber Heights, Kettering and Washington Township, for example, do not provide any waste collection services -- residents in those communities must subscribe for such services with a private hauler. In these jurisdictions, waste collection by private haulers ranges from $15 per month ($180 per year) to $17 per month ($204 per year) for collection services. Bulk pickups are additional.

· Other cities provide or contract for waste collection services for their residents and may also charge for collection and disposal costs. The cost of collection and disposal services for some other Montgomery County cities is listed below:

The fee reflected on your property taxes is charged on all improved property in the Montgomery County Solid Waste District to provide for the availability of transfer station facilities. The Annual Property Charge fee is used primarily to pay the principal and interest on the transfer station debt. The tonnage fee (also known as the tipping or disposal fee) that is paid by all trash haulers who dispose of trash at the transfer station provides the maintenance and operating funds for the facilities.

No. The residential fee is a flat rate that provides for the regular amount of residential waste to be disposed of at the transfer station. Even short-term vacant properties generate some trash, such as maintenance, repair, etc.

Yes. The small charge for container rental (89 cents per month) is still necessary to pay for repair and replacements. Other local cities charge up to $2.00 per month for a container fee (Trotwood, Union, Englewood).