Ch. 3 Land - Environment Yukon

Direct Costs:
■ Picking up Whitehorse residential
garbage – $61.33 per tonne
■ Disposing of Whitehorse residential
garbage – $60 per tonne
■ Operating rural waste sites – up
to $5,000 per year with current
practices (amount could increase
under the new solid waste
regulations)
■ Operating the Whitehorse Landfill
– $528,242 (Average cost 1996
to 1998)
■ Developing a new ‘cell’ at the
Whitehorse Landfill – $320,000
Indirect Costs:
■ Air pollution from burning waste
in landfills
■ Harm to wildlife attracted to
dumps, especially bears
■ Littering caused by paper and
plastic wastes blowing away
from landfills
■ Leaching from landfills may
contaminate groundwater
■ Water runoff from landfills may
pollute surface waters
tonnes of waste
200,000
150,000
100,000
50,000
0
Tipping fees come to town
After studying various approaches used
to reduce the amount of solid waste
dumped in landfills, the City of
Whitehorse has decided to make
garbage disposal more of a user-pay
system. But instead of asking users to
pay the full costs of operating the
landfill, the city has opted for a 50/50
split on these costs. Half of the money
for running the program will come from
taxes, while the other half will come
from tipping fees charged at the landfill.
With tipping fees, people pay
according to the amount of garbage
that they dump at the landfill. Tipping
fees provide a small financial incentive
for households and businesses to
reduce their waste as it is no longer
cheaper to have everything hauled to
the dump. Lower taxes for both
businesses and residences will help to
offset the new fees.
In Whitehorse, the fee is $1 per visit for
up to eight bags of garbage, and $4 per
pickup truck load. Bigger loads will be
weighed and assessed a charge of $15
per tonne. The tipping fees double if
construction and demolition wastes are
mixed in with household garbage.
Residential Waste
Commercial Waste
1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998
Figure 3.15 Data summary of Whitehorse landfill volume estimates
Users from outside the City limits are
charged the full disposal cost of $60
per tonne since they do not contribute
to the landfill costs through taxes. There
is no tipping fee for compostable or
locally recyclable materials. Households
with city garbage collection will have a
monthly fee of $2 added to their bills to
cover their share of landfill costs.
Tipping fees are standard in most of the
country and have been shown to
reduce the amount of waste delivered
to dumps by anywhere from 15 to 45
per cent. In southern Ontario, tipping
fees range from $100 to $150 per
tonne.
It is estimated that the user-pay system,
implemented in November 1999, will
further reduce residential waste by 15
per cent and commercial waste by 30
per cent, extending the life of the
landfill by six years and saving the city
$1,466,750 over the next 30 years.
All large waste loads will be weighed
and assessed the appropriate tipping
fee. Small, non-commercial loads will
be directed through the transfer station
to areas where people can properly
sort and drop off household garbage,
tires, wood waste, compost, and
reusable and recyclable materials. The
transfer station is slated to begin
operations in July 2000.
Proposed Solid Waste
Regulations
The Yukon government began
developing Solid Waste Regulations in
1998. The draft regulations called for a
ban on open burning at dumps and a
requirement for permits to build and
operate waste disposal sites. However,
during the public review, municipalities
were concerned about the high
increases in operating costs and the
proposed ban on open burning was
dropped prior to the regulations being
approved. The new regulations will
establish modern standards for building
and operating dumps and landfills in
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