County of Grande Prairie residents will have to pay for excess garbage dumping after members of council approved implementing an annual weight limit at the landfill.
The move will see the introduction of a limit to the access tag system used at the Clairmont Centre for Recycling and Waste Management with a weight limit of 1,000 kilograms per tag, available with proof of County residency.
Reeve Leanne Beaupre says there will be no charge for staying under the limit, but changes were needed after reports of potential misuse in recent years.
“If you’re a resident in the County of Grande Prairie, you can apply for a tag, but we were finding the tag itself seemed to find its way into other hands, and it may not [be] being used for the purposes it was initially for,” she adds.
Beaupre says they will also be looking at introducing technology at the facility which will also give them a clearer picture as to what is making its way into the landfill.
“That way, we can track how much is actually going to the landfill on a regular basis that isn’t coming through a commercial hauler, and hopefully that will reduce some of the refuse that is going into the landfill,” she says.
“Ultimately, the goal is to try and divert some of that into recyclables, or into an area where you can leave something that may be of value to somebody else in the future.”
The program is expected to go into effect in 2022.