GUELPH – Starting in the new year, people disposing of trash at county waste facilities will have to pay a minimum fee of $10 – even if their trash is in yellow garbage bags they’ve already purchased.
“If you are not going to use curbside to have garbage picked up, don’t use the yellow bags to deliver it to our facilities,” councillor Steve O’Neill, chair of the solid waste services committee, told council at the Sept. 26 meeting.
The committee had approved the Jan. 1, 2025 implementation of a minimum fee at its Sept. 10 meeting.
But according to a staff report, previously the committee has twice approved a staff recommendation to introduce a minimum fee in recent years, and both times the motion did not get the approval of council.
This was “in part due to uncertainty and/or concern over how user-pay bags delivered to waste sites would be handled under this fee structure,” the report said.
Currently, county residents must buy yellow garbage bags at a cost of $2.50 each for large bags or $2 for small bags.
They can put out as many bags as they want at the curb on garbage day or, if they choose to drive their garbage to the waste transfer station, there is no charge to drop off waste in yellow bags.
But residents aren’t really meant to be toting their yellow bags to the dump.
“The yellow bag was strictly intended for use at curbside,” the report stated.
“When yellow bags are dropped off at waste facilities, there are costs associated with receiving, storing and transporting bags to landfill.”
Meanwhile, the county is paying annually for curbside collection, regardless of the number of yellow bags picked up at the curb, the report states.
Charging for yellow bags brought to waste facilities is an approach meant to incentivize using curbside collection for those bags and using waste facilities only for materials that cannot be effectively managed at roadside, the report states.
Household hazardous waste (HHW), as well as other materials designated by the province under the Resource Recovery and Circular Economy Act, such as tires and electronic waste, will be exempt from the minimum fee.
“In order to better ensure that HHW is disposed of properly and safely, it is a best practice to not charge any fees for HHW materials and items,” the report stated.
Leaf and yard waste delivered to county waste facilities from April through November will also be exempt.
Following O’Neill’s presentation to council, councillor David Anderson stood up to point out that minimum fees are common practice at waste facilities.
“All the areas around us are charging fees,” Anderson said.
Councillor Earl Campbell, referring to the new fee as a “proposed increase,” noted that under the current system the per-bag fee at waste facilities is the same as the cost to purchase a yellow bag – meaning that residents could currently pay as little as $2.50 to dispose of a single black garbage bag at a county waste transfer station.
“The proposed increase is a 400 per cent increase,” Campbell said.
Campbell said he appreciates that the fee is in line with what other municipalities are charging, and that the goal is to modify behaviour, but it may be a hard sell for the public.
“It is going to be a tough pill for our staff to swallow, and the general public to swallow,” Campbell said.
He went on to say he expects the fee to impact how waste facilities get used, and that should dictate what happens with future capital projects at those facilities.
According to a county news release, by implementing the minimum fee at its six waste facility sites, the county aims to expand the list of materials that can be diverted at those facilities by freeing up space currently used for bagged garbage.
“Diverting more materials will extend the lifespan of the county’s only active landfill site and provide both environmental and financial benefits to county residents,” the release stated.
To learn more about the minimum fee and other waste diversion initiatives, visit wellington.ca/waste-facilities.
