There are many levers local governments can pull to nudge human behaviour.
But the ones grabbed most eagerly — and admittedly effectively — have always been any that target our pocketbooks. The Capital Regional District (CRD) reached for those once it became clear the region’s only landfill was filling up faster than it could raise money to expand it.
As part of a multi-year ongoing increase scheme, the CRD raised Hartland Landfill tipping fees again to $160 per tonne for general refuse; through its regulation bylaw, fines for some kinds of prohibited trash can now be as high as $2,000.
It’s all done in hopes thrifty customers will take the hint, perhaps reduce their consumption but certainly take advantage of low- to no-cost recycling and organics drop-off options.
And it may be working. We’ve seen how popular island recycling depots are, and it seems as if everyone is growing something each summer thanks to all the backyard composting that’s done.
But for institutional customers, it’s another matter. There’s no free ride on Salt Spring for a business, park, clinic or school that’s producing recyclable or compostable waste; they either pay someone to sort their trash and someone else to take it away, or pay someone to take it all and sort it elsewhere. Staffing costs make that latter choice pretty attractive, which we imagine leaves haulers in a similar situation later: pay someone to sort, or risk penalty costs at the landfill.
Or, possibly, find somewhere cheaper to take it all. The Cowichan Valley Regional District accepts trash it sends to landfills in Washington State for a relative bargain of 33 cents per kilogram.
Notably, for residential trash it’s an unsettled matter as to whether raising tipping fees causes more households to dump illegally; in rural settings, the baseline of random bags found at the end of quiet roads is unmeasured, and it’s hard to tell who’s burying what in their backyards.
But marketplace forces are far more predictable. If the cost of something goes up, every operation will search for a lower cost supplier. Business is business.
It may not be the environment-conscious plan we’d hope for. But if the CRD’s goal is simply to divert island trash to anywhere but Hartland, its strategy may be working.