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Summit County officials approve increase to cost to dispose of waste at local landfill

The rates at the landfill at the Summit County Resource Allocation Park have not been raised since 2010, according to county officials

Robert Tann/Summit Daily News
A Waste Management truck departs the Summit County landfill near Keystone on Thursday, May 2, 2024. As trash collection increases, county officials say they will likely need to raise fees for waste disposal to pay for ongoing facility maintenance.
Robert Tann/Summit Daily News

The Summit Board of County Commissioners at its meeting Tuesday, Jan. 28, unanimously approved increases to tipping fees at the Summit County Resource Allocation Park, or S.C.R.A.P.

Tipping fees are the fees paid by someone disposing of waste at a landfill. The vote Tuesday will raise tipping fees from $58 to $69 per ton for municipal solid waste, from $72 to $85 per ton for construction and demolition debris and from $33 to $40 per ton for biosolids. It will also implement a new tipping fee for “unsorted” construction and demolition debris of $150 per ton.

Summit County communications director Adrienne Saia Isaac said that the new fees won’t be implemented at the landfill until the spring or summer.



“Our tip fees are very out of line at S.C.R.A.P.,” Summit County solid waste director Aaron Bryne told the commissioners. “We do not have currently a very sustainable model that we would like to have.”

Byrne recommended the increase to the tipping fees at the county landfill, noting that it is based on a study by a consultant. The landfill in Summit County has not increased its tipping fees since 2010 and actually lowered tipping fees in 2016, he said.



The county landfill operates as an enterprise fund, meaning it is supposed to be self-sustaining with revenues offsetting expenses, Byrne said. But with no raise to tipping fees in years, the landfill would not be self-sustaining and would not be able to support future projects, he said.

The increase for disposing of municipal solid waste is less than the $80 per ton rate recommended by consultants. This is in part because the county officials were looking to reduce the impact of the cost increases on residents.

While the landfill’s costs have increased, county officials are hopeful that the pay-as-you-throw program that has been implemented in Breckenridge and Frisco, and will soon start up in incorporated Summit County, will lead to a decrease in municipal solid waste.


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