News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The Putnam County Solid Waste Department increasing its tipping fees for the landfill and transfer station.
Putnam County Solid Waste Director Doug Ashburn said the county has not increased its fees since 2001. Ashburn said the county increased the fees to match inflation.
“The county has kept them low for many years,” Ashburn said. “It’s just time, it’s like everything else you just have to go up eventually.”
The transfer station fee increased from $45 to $50 per ton, the landfill fee increased from $35 to $50 per ton, and shingles increased from $35 to $100 per ton. Ashburn said the increases impact commercial haulers.
“It will have no impact on the residents,” Ashburn said. “They can still bring their stuff to the transfer station and the landfill. It will affect the commercial and private haulers that have a business in it.”
Ashburn said the shingles increased drastically due to them being a problem waste.
“They are hard to manage and they take up a lot of air space,” Ashburn said. “The county just needs to be getting paid on the air space that is getting taken up.”
Shingles have been rapidly coming to Putnam County’s landfill due to other surrounding counties having more expensive prices for disposing of them. Ashburn said he hopes the increase will stabilize to a point where they can go some time without increasing the fees again.
“The committee didn’t want to do a large increase at one time they increased it a little bit to see how this would help,” Ashburn said. ” There may be an increase in the future but if it stabilizes then I don’t see one in the near future, but we will just have to wait and see how the revenue lands.”
