In a continued effort to reduce waste headed for the landfill, the City of Asheville is restructuring its fees for recycling and solid waste collection.
Beginning July 1, the city will replace the $3.50 per month recycling fee with a $7.00 per month solid waste fee. This fee will continue to appear on the combined utility statement and will apply to all customers using the city’s solid waste collection services.
The fee change more accurately represents the high cost of waste disposal. Solid waste services use about 80,000 gallons of fuel each year. These costs continue to rise and make it difficult to continue delivering quality service with the same amount of money.
Replacing the $3.50 per month recycling fee with a $7.00 per month solid waste fee will generate an additional $750,000 that will be used to further reduce materials going into the landfill through the installation of downtown recycling containers and allow for optimization of solid waste collection routes in order to reduce fuel costs.
The City of Asheville’s Zero Waste campaign is aimed at reducing landfill waste. The “Big Blue” recycling carts rolled out in 2012 have resulted in a significant increase in recycled materials in the city. The City of Asheville remains dedicated to reducing its waste and carbon footprint.