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What is the system benefit fee?

Lane County's Waste Management Division provides services and programs that benefit all Lane County residents and businesses who generate garbage. The system benefit fee, or SBF, is a means of making sure that all Lane County residents and businesses pay their fair share of the costs of those services and programs. For example, all Lane County residents have access to recycling and household hazardous waste programs that rank among the finest in the state, as well as an extensive network of convenient local transfer stations. Because these programs are offered at no direct cost to the user, they must be funded through disposal fees collected at transfer stations and at the landfill. This system of collecting fees to fund programs has worked well for years, but in recent years, some commercial garbage haulers have begun to haul their customers' trash to landfills that aren't operated by Lane County. When that happens, revenues decrease -- but the costs of operating these programs stay the same. The SBF is a way to change the way fees are collected without raising the fees.

So fees haven't increased?

When you haul your residential or commercial trash to a disposal site operated by Lane County, your overall fee will be the same as it has been for the last several years. It works like this: before the new system was implemented, the basic disposal charge, or "tipping fee," at a Lane County site was $45 per ton (pro rated for smaller deliveries -- see our rates page for residential rates). From that $45, some money went to fund landfill operations, some was used to operate Lane County's system of 16 transfer sites, some went to the waste reduction and recycling program and the rest was used to support administrative costs and the household hazardous waste collection program.

With the new system in place, disposal costs will still total the same $45 per ton, but are broken down into two sub fees. The first, the tipping fee, is used solely to fund landfill operations, including capital improvements, leachate treatment, closure and post-closure care and prudent reserves, as well as the day to day costs of operating the landfill. This tipping fee is $27.24 per ton.

The second sub fee is the SBF of $17.76 per ton. Revenues collected through the SBF are used to support the Waste Reduction/Recycling and Special Waste programs, as well as the transfer system. Administrative costs are divided between the two elements.

If the fees haven't increased, why the change?

The difference comes when haulers use a disposal site other than Short Mt. Landfill. When that happens, they will pay that disposal site's tipping fee, in addition to Lane County's SBF of $17.76 per ton. Through this system, Lane County residents and businesses who generate garbage pay their fair share to support the other programs that benefit them, even if their trash doesn't end up in Short Mt. Landfill. Customers who haul to Lane County sites, and those who hire a commercial garbage hauler, shouldn't notice an increase in cost. Why? Because cities in Lane County that franchise garbage haulers use Lane County tipping fees in setting their municipal garbage collection rates. Therefore, commercial haulers' rates shouldn't be affected by the change in fee collection systems.