Will the new $5 landfill user fee increase illegal dumping in Sudbury? Probably not, says one expert

It will soon cost $5 to access the City of Greater Sudbury's landfills, in addition to the regular tipping fees. 

The change has caused a stir in the community over the last couple of weeks, with some city councillors saying they weren't aware this new fee had been included in the last budget.

Ward 5's Mike Parent asked his fellow councillors to reconsider this in a meeting earlier this week, but didn't have enough support around the table to reopen the debate – although he came quite close, with six councillors voting in favor and six voting against.

With the defeat of the motion the matter is now settled and landfill users will pay a $5 flat fee at the gates as of July 1st, regardless of load size. 

The move is projected to add a total of almost a million dollars to city coffers over the next two years, with city staff also hoping this will help reduce small load visits to the landfill. 

'I'm just going to dump it off in the ditch somewhere'

But some local residents have expressed concern it might lead to more illegal dumping. 

"The last thing you want is for people to say, well, I can't afford the $5, so I'm just going to dump it off in the ditch somewhere," said Wayne Hart, who visits the landfills monthly. 

"Some people will have no choice but to throw it in some other place." 

But waste researcher and the director of York University's Circular Innovation Hub, Calvin Lakhan, isn't convinced the new fee will lead to significant behavoiral changes. 

"Most people who are already willing to drive it to a landfill are probably willing to eat that cost," he said. 

"And for the people who didn't even want to bother to begin with and are illegally dumping then that $5 isn't going to make a difference either way," he added. 

Lakhan believes it would have been a different story if the gate fee was higher. 

"I see $10 being kind of like the breaking point for people where it becomes like a material sum and they say, you know what, this is not worth my time," he said. 

Illegal dumping is more prevalent in northern Ontario 

Lakhan says illegal dumping is more prevalent in the province's north, as it's a large territory and there's fewer chances of getting caught than in southern Ontario. 

"People are opportunistic dumpers," he said. 

Lakhan says if the new fee does lead to more illegal dumping, then it wouldn't be worth it for the city as remediation could end up being more expensive than the revenues generated by the fee.

He says Greater Sudbury could provide more incentives, such as having times in the year where tipping and user fees are waived. 

Several northern Ontario municipalities have user fees for their landfills, including Timmins, which charges $3.50 per visit. 

Sault Ste. Marie has had an $11 flat gate fee for two decades. Susan Hamilton Beach, the city's director of public works, says it's an important way to raise the revenues needed to run the service. 

"Our municipality uses the gate fee to fund maintenance and expansion of the operation of the landfill to meet regulations and be good environmental stewards," she said. 

"There will always be a percentage of the population that will dump materials illegally, but municipal taxpayers recognize the importance of the environment and want to do the right thing," she added. "There is a cost to this."