By John West
The Chambers County Landfill has new regulations on what it can now accept. The new rules were dropped on LaFayette seemingly without warning last week. “We just got hit over night with some new regulations in the landfill,” said LaFayette City Superintendent George Green at the City Council meeting on Monday. “All we can take is construction and demolition and green waste… what they are accepting is a very short list,” he added. Additionally, the landfill will now charge $5.00 for every tire it receives.
Most household items including appliances, electronics, household garbage, furniture, aerosols, fluorescent fixtures, free or contained liquids, and an abundance of other items are no longer allowed in the landfill. A complete list of acceptable and unacceptable items can be obtained from the city.
“This is something that effects every household, that’s why we wanted to bring you up to speed on what’s going on,” Green said.
This new heavily restricted list of items has put the city in a bit of a crunch. “These new rules they’ve thrown in on us is really going to jack our budget up,” Green said. The city is considering having Waste Management bring in a dumpster to hold items the landfill is no longer accepting. According to Green, if the city gets a dumpster, and has Waste Away dumps it every two weeks, then it would cost the city $650 a month. The cost could go up to $89,000 a year.
The other option would be for the city to deliver the refuse directly to Waste Management. If they take this option, it would mean driving 31 miles one way to the Waste Management landfill twice a day vs driving only 10 miles to the Chambers County landfill. Waste Management also charges $48 a ton vs just $30 a ton at the Chambers County landfill.
Councilman Ellis suggested looking into taking the refuse to a landfill on the south side of Auburn instead.
No decisions were made on what to do at the city council meeting.
