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Increased Tipping Fees, Lack Of Recycling Means Garbage Impacting Tax Bills
By Catherine Snipe
And you thought you didn't like taking out the trash?
Thanks to an increase in tipping fees, Brick Township will now pay more to haul away the community's garbage, officials recently announced.
Department of Public Works Director Robert Russo said he expects Brick to pay $3.8 million to cover landfill costs, one of the areas of his department that is increasing as part of an overall 2.3 percent increase to his requested budget for 2007.
Russo was asked by the council how much the township recycles. He said he sees the total tonnage going down, not up. The problem with lagging recyclables, township officials said, is that it not only contributes to the cost of hauling away garbage, it is lost money. That's because the township gets reimbursed money from the county for all the recyclables it collects. Meanwhile, the township pays to dump regular garbage.
In short, when recyclables are mixed in with regular garbage, it is the taxpayer who pays.
"There is so much savings we could have here," said Councilman Anthony Matthews.
Instead, Public Works Director Robert Russo said the department's budget will be $12.43 million, an increase from $12.14 million last year.
The increase in garbage tipping fees does not help. The increase there is expected to come in at $185,000. That costs the township $96 for each ton of garbage, Russo said.
"We have to come up with $185,000 more to dump the same material," he said.
A tipping fee is the charge a waste facility places to receive the garbage, used to offset the cost of opening, maintaining and eventually closing a landfill.
If the township can reduce the amount of garbage it collects, it could save money on tipping fees, officials said.
That means the township council will again emphasize working with administration to try to push recycling.
Council members said they were curious if the Recycling Coordinator, Glenn Campbell, can initiate an education program for residents on how to recycle.
Russo said he would love to see more education on recycling. Right now, the number of homes requesting two township garbage cans is increasing. The township provides each address one special can for its garbage that fits with the trucks the township uses. However, some addresses have two cans. This also throws off the truck routes as they collect garbage. The more cans on the route, the faster the garbage truck fills, meaning the truck could fill before the route is done. Russo said this could add time to garbage collection days, which in turn would also cost more money in man-hours.
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