County’s landfill fee going up for all users

Increase to cover decline in revenue

Companies and cities dropping off trash at Pulaski County landfills will have to pay higher fees next year under a plan approved Thursday by the Regional Recycling and Waste Reduction District.

The fees will double from 30 cents per ton deposited into a landfill to 60 cents.

That’s less than what solid-waste district leaders had asked of the district’s board, which is comprised of the mayors of the county’s six cities with 2,500 people or more and the county judge. The Regional Recycling and Waste Reduction District is a state solid-waste district that operates only in Pulaski County.

The district, which provides electronics recycling to businesses and residents in the county, among other things, projects a more than $400,000 decline in revenue next fiscal year because of the end of several state grant programs and another solid-waste district’s decision to take its trash to a landfill in another county. The recy

cling district’s budget is less than $1.3 million.

The increase to 60 cents per ton is expected to generate about $290,000 more annually. The district estimated an increase to 90 cents would generate about $435,000 more annually.

After Little Rock, which operates a landfill, objected to the 60 cents, the board agreed to do a 30-cent per ton “tipping” fee increase to start and study within the next six months whether it needs to increase again.

Tipping fees are payments landfills must make to the solid-waste district per ton of materials deposited. Those costs get passed on to the companies and municipalities that dump there, said Ronny Loe, assistant public works director for Little Rock.

The city deposits about 65,000 to 75,000 tons per year into its own landfill, he said. The 30-cent increase means an increase in what the city pays of between $19,500 and $22,500 annually. The city pays those fees to its own landfill, which must pass them on to the district.

This is the first tipping fee increase since 1993.

District Executive Director Craig Douglass said the average tipping fee for contiguous solid-waste districts is $1.31 per ton. In June, Douglass presented board members with a proposal to eventually make the district’s fee 90 cents per ton through 30-cent increases two years in a row.

Loe, who represented Mayor Frank Scott Jr. at the meeting, said the city wants to evaluate whether the district needs to continue its programs through tipping fees versus canceling them or finding another source, or if certain programs would have to end with the loss of grant money. He said the district spends $120,000 annually on two electronics recycling events at Verizon Arena that are free to county residents and businesses, but residents can recycle electronics at green stations in five cities in the county and businesses can call companies that will pick up their electronics for recycling.

“We think it’s more reasonable to look at those programs and see, is that something the district should be funding through tipping fees as opposed to a grant,” Loe said.

Douglass argued that the district offers several programs that are important to the county, such as the green stations, illegal dumps control and grant programs for school recycling.

“These things are not frivolous programs,” he said, noting that the district cut its budget by $156,000 last year, largely by turning two full-time positions into contracts and eliminating the cost of employee benefits at the district.

“Do we need to continue to look at that every year? Absolutely, but these are fundamental things,” he said.

North Little Rock Mayor Joe Smith cautioned that if programs were cut, residents may begin to demand those programs from their city halls.

After Loe’s objection to the fee increase, Smith suggested approving the first of the 30-cent increases but holding off on the second increase until an existing task force of public-works directors studies the need to increase tipping fees.

Loe agreed to that, and the board approved the measure on a voice vote with no audible opposition.

The task force must conclude its report in time for the district’s first board meeting of 2020, in March.