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Environmental Services

Disposal Fees

Sub-Regional User Fee Schedules & Bylaws

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Changes to Tipping Fees – Effective January 1, 2026

On December 11, 2025 the RDCK Board of Directors approved a 6.4% increase to most tipping fees EXCEPTING Organic Waste products, which increased by 2.4%.  

The 6.4% increase was a combination of a 2.4% increase (to address inflation) plus a 4% increase planned each year, over the next five years in an effort to achieve cost recovery; managing waste largely through tipping fees, rather than taxation, is aligned with the RDCK’s goal to operate a user pay system.  

These changes to the new Bylaw (Resource Recovery Facility Regulatory Bylaw No. 3065, 2025) will go in to effect January 1st, 2026.  

Below is pertinent information regarding changes made to this bylaw regarding disposal costs and a new material code – Mattresses. 

NEW PRICES

Some of the prices for common items are shown in the table below. The entire Bylaw is linked above.

MATERIALPRICE AS OF JANUARY 1, 2026
Mixed Waste (including Contaminated Wood Waste)$177.25/tonne or $42.50/m3
Mixed Waste (per container)$4.75 each (Central Subregion) / $4.00 each (East & West Subregions)
Construction, Demolition & Renovation Waste$283.25/tonner or $70.75/m3
Scrap Metal$56.75/tonne or $28.50/m3
Clean Wood Waste$92.25/tonne or $22.00/m3
Yard & Garden Waste$70.75/tonne or $14.00/m3
Organic Waste$109.00/tonne or $27.50/m3
Out-of-Area Organic Waste$160.00/tonne or $40.00/m3

MATTRESSES 

In addition, to the above changes, Mattresses will now be charged a per-unit rate of $17.50 each. They were previously charged by the tonne or cubic meter.   

Mattresses are defined as:  A bedding product consisting of resilient material enclosed in fabric, used or intended for sleeping, including foam mattresses, futons, and box springs. 

Frequently Asked Questions

1. WHY DO THE PRICES GO UP EVERY YEAR?

There are several reasons why tipping fees in the RDCK have continuously risen over the past few years. 

  1. More stringent regulatory requirements: as we enter the next phase of landfilling at Ootischenia and Creston landfills, the RDCK must meet provincial requirements to ensure landfilling practices are protective of the environment. There are costly infrastructure upgrades and increased oversight to meet these requirements.  This includes infrastructure that we have not yet employed (e.g., leachate collection and treatment systems, liners underneath the garbage, landfill gas collection and flare systems) and now need to generate revenue from taxes and/or tipping fees to pay for these costly expenses.  
  2. Rising operating and capital costs: Both operating costs such as fuel, labour, insurance, contracted maintenance and supplies; and capital costs such as the site development, infrastructure, buildings, equipment etc. continue to rise. 
  3. Major capital projects: Examples of recent and upcoming capital projects include: 
    • Construction of a new transfer station in Nakusp (completed in 2025). 
    • Upgrades to the Rosebery and Slocan transfer stations (completed in 2025). 
    • Final closure of old ‘legacy’ landfills – This involves capping, re-grading, fill placement, monitoring water quality etc.  
    • Creston Landfill Phase 1C/D closure and berm project underway with construction in 2026.  
    • Major upgrades at Ootischenia including construction of a new tipping area, addition of a second truck scale, to commence in 2026. 
    • Nelson Landfill closure and new Nelson area recycling depot. This is in progress for 2026. 
    • Closure of the Nakusp Landfill planned for 2027. 
    • Installation of a base liner and leachate collection & treatment system at the Ootischenia Landfill planned to start in 2028. 

To see a more fulsome list of projects, please see Further details are outlined in the 10 Year Financial Plan Summary (Schedule B – page 90) in the RDCK’s Resource Recovery Plan.   

2. WHAT IS A USER PAY SYSTEM?  

Having operating costs (wages, contracted services, loan repayment, etc.) and capital expenses (buildings, equipment, infrastructure etc.) covered fully through the fees collected from disposers of waste is the foundation of a “user-pay” system. Put more simply, a system whereby those that produce waste pay to manage it, – and managing waste properly is expensive!   

3. WHO PAYS FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF WASTE WHEN TIPPING FEES DON’T COVER THE COSTS?  

When funds collected through tipping fees do not fully cover costs, the shortfall is made up through taxation, which impacts everyone regardless of individual waste generated. 

4. HOW CAN I REDUCE MY COSTS FOR WASTE DISPOSAL?  

The RDCK encourages diversion (keeping resources out of the landfill) through reduced rates (or sometimes free disposal) for materials that can be recycled or composted.  

The quicker our landfill sites fill up the sooner the region will need to locate a new landfill, which is a complex and expensive process.  We want to delay future landfills for as long as possible, and the way to do that is to encourage diversion – specifically, keeping resources in circulation longer through reuse or recycling instead of landfilling. 

5. WHY ARE WE CHARGING FOR INDIVIDUAL MATTRESSES NOW?  

  1. Unlike most garbage, mattresses are a lot of extra work to landfill as they don’t compact and are very hard on landfill equipment. As a result, they must be stockpiled, then buried deep at the bottom of a cell so that the weight of the garbage mass can press them flat.  The additional handling increases the cost to manage them.   
  1. In the BC government’s 2021-2026 Five Year Action Plan intended to include a residential mattress Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) recycling program (similar to major appliances, residential packaging etc.).  Unfortunately, it was excluded from the Recycling Regulation update in 2025. The RDCK and many other regional districts continue to lobby the province to include mattresses in the Recycling Regulation. Until the province requires an EPR program, regional districts will have to design and fund their own programs – the “per-unit” rate will help get this started and assist the RDCK in collecting data on mattresses.  
  1. Mattresses can be deconstructed and the various materials recycled and more easily disposed of, but that comes at an additional cost.  Under an EPR program, mattress producers would pay for their full lifecycle.  This also follows the user-pay system so that those buy mattresses pay for the extra cost to manage these challenging items, rather than subsidized by all taxpayers.  
REGIONAL DISTRICT / MUNICIPALITY2026 TIPPING FEE & COMMENTS
Metro Vancouver$20 each – up from $15 last year. Increased $5 per unit to $20 – towards recycling cost recovery.
Cowichan Valley$32 each raised from $18 each in 2025. Increase in response to the province’s decision to exclude residential mattresses from its Extended Producer Responsibility Five-Year Action Plan.
Nanaimo$20 each
Columbia Shuswap$15 each
Vernon$11 each
Kelowna$18 each. Up from $15 in 2025.
Capital (Victoria)$155/tonne + $10 bin fee. Mattresses are banned from landfill, so mattresses CANNOT be disposed with garbage. Customers pay the tonnage rate for garbage, then separately pay the tonnage rate for recycling mattresses with a $10 bin fee. A 100 kg load of mattresses would cost $25; a $50 kg load would cost $17.50.

5. WHY DID ORGANIC WASTE NOT INCREASE AS MUCH AS GARBAGE?

The RDCK has two composting facilities, which were built with the intention of diverting as much food waste from landfilling as possible – this will save a lot of landfill space, and will reduce methane emissions and leachate (liquids that can contaminate ground water impacted by the landfills). 

Getting food and other organic wastes separated from the garbage however takes changes in the collection systems and habits, which are difficult today without some incentives. 

Therefore, RDCK is intentionally keeping the tipping fees for Organic Waste lower, and has even reduced the tipping fee for the business sector to provide proper incentives for making these changes.  

The additional revenue generated through compost sales, will also help to keep prices lower. 

For these reasons, Organic Waste was only raised to match inflation, at 2.4%. 

6. WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN “CONTAMINATED WOOD WASTE’ AND CLEAN WOOD WASTE?

Clean Wood Waste is kiln-dried dimensional lumber such as wood pallets which is free of paints, stains, glues, plastics, preservatives or composites (e.g., dimensional lumber using glue or adhesives such as particleboard, oriented strand board, medium-density fiberboard (MDF), and plywood). It must not be mixed with wire, fiberglass, asphalt, melamine, paper backings, and other non-wood materials; and must not exceed 2′ in width or and 8′ in length at any point.

Contaminated Wood Waste can contain paints, stains, glues, plastics, and preservatives composites but must not exceed 4′ in length (so that it can fit in the bin).

7. WHY THE HUGE DIFFERENCE IN TIPPING FEES FOR THESE TWO TYPES OF WOOD?

The costs to manage wood waste are significantly higher than the revenues they bring in. Wood grinding, for example costs the regions hundreds of thousands of dollars annually, and Contaminated Wood does not currently have a viable end-use; this has resulted in a major surplus of wood chip piles at RDCK sites. The stockpiles use up valuable space, and pose a significant fire risk.  

8. WHAT DOES THE RDCK DO TO MANAGE THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF WOOD WASTE?

In order to reduce processing costs and manage fire risk, Contaminated Wood Waste will not be ground up, and will instead be landfilled until a viable end-use can be secured.  

Alternatively, Clean Wood Waste (lumber such as wood pallets that are free of paint, plastic, preservatives, fiberglass, Asphalt Roofing Material, melamine etc.) is accepted at a much lower tipping fee, and will be ground in to chips, to be used for landfill operations such as road repair and septage management.  

9. WHERE DO I TIP WOOD WASTE?

Yes. Contaminated Wood Waste will now be directed to the Mixed Waste bin at most sites, in pieces no more than 4’ in length. Clean Wood Waste will be directed to bins, where wood waste bins exist, and to wood waste piles at larger sites.

The RDCK completed an efficiency study of the Resource Recovery system in 2025. The purpose of the Study was to:

  1. Assess cost recovery of tipping fees to:
    • Understand the costs of managing specific waste types and how much of these costs are currently covered by tipping fees versus taxation;
    • Ensure that the balance between tipping fees and taxation is fair and equitable;
  2. Benchmark the Resource Recovery system to determine if the RDCK is over or under-serviced, both internally (between sub-regions) and externally (compared to similar regional districts); and,
  3. Identify options to recognize efficiencies and improve cost-effectiveness and equitability, while ensuring regulatory compliance.

A data model was created to assess tipping fee cost recovery and completed a benchmarking assessment comparing service levels in the RDCK both internally and externally. The results of these assessments were used to evaluate the performance and efficiency of the system as a whole, as well as for each sub-region.

In November and December 2024, Staff presented the results of the study to the RDCK Board of Directors, along with a plan for how the recommendations from the study would be implemented in coming years.

Links to the study and the accompanying RDCK Staff reports, presented to the RDCK Board of Directors, are below:

1.  Why is the price per Container different in the Central Sub-region, (Grohman (Nelson), Central (Salmo), Balfour, Kaslo, Marblehead, and Ymir)?

The Central Sub-Region does not operate an active landfill, but hosts the busiest Transfer Station in the region (Grohman Narrows), and as a result has some of the highest operating costs for transfer of waste.

2.  Why doesn’t RDCK just waive tipping fees and pay for everything through taxes?

  • RDCK is committed to a User-Pay system: A fully tax-funded system does not incentivize waste diversion (i.e. encourage anyone to recycle or compost; in the long run this reduces the life of our regional landfills). A user-pay system places the burden of the costs on those who generate waste instead of on all taxpayers.
  • Recycle BC Depots have no tipping fees: The RDCK’s 12 Core Recycle BC depots are meant to be primarily funded by Recycle BC, an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) program, in which contributions from the producers of printed paper and packaging, such as retailers, pay for the recycling of these materials. Current Recycle BC funding does not fully cover the operating costs of these depots, nor does it cover any costs for RDCK’s Satellite Depots, so the balance is funded through taxation. RDCK Staff and Directors continue to lobby for increased Recycle BC funding to fully cover the operating costs of the Core Depots.
  • Non-EPR recyclable materials that are disposed at landfills and transfer stations (e.g., clean wood and metal) have significantly lower tipping fees, as they are NOT landfilled. 

3.  How can Customers keep their disposal costs manageable?

  • Increase your diversion: Take advantage of the growing number of items that can be recycled or composted.
    • Source-Separate from your garbage: There are a number of items, such as clean wood, metal etc. that have lower disposal fees than garbage.
    • Our Salmo, Grohman, Ootischenia and Creston sites all accept Organic Waste for composting at a lower rate than garbage.
    • RDCK is trialing ways to encourage more organic waste:
      • Residential customers disposing of containers (up to 121L) of organic waste, get the first container free, if they bring it in with at least one container of garbage.
      • Tipping fees for organic waste, SOURCED FROM BUSINESSES, SUCH AS RESTAURANTS, GROCERY STORES ETC now have a lower tipping fee of $50/tonne (less than half regular price) for all of 2025. This does not apply to commercial haulers brining in organic waste from municipal curbside programs.
  • Home Composting: While the RDCK accepts organic waste for composting at a lower rate than garbage at the Central (Salmo), Ootischenia, Grohman and Creston facilities, household composting is a cost-effective and environmentally friendly way to significantly reduce the volume and odours of your waste. There are options for every situation including systems that do not attract animals and are capable of composting meats and kitchen scraps, such as Bokashi composting.
  • Bigger disposal bags or containers can be more cost effective: Rather than bringing in small bags or containers, maximize the value of your disposals by using 121L bags or containers. If possible, bring in larger loads of household garbage to scaled sites and pay by weight. Consider sharing disposal costs with people in your area.

Contact Information

250.352.816113

RRDept@rdck.bc.ca.