At Great West, we have found that a good starting point for communities suffering from revenue shortfalls is to assess solid waste rates for businesses. Although businesses may generate more trash than residences, businesses are not all the same. For example, a small drive-through coffee shop that fills one garbage can each week might be charged the same as a grocery store that fills several dumpsters. To determine how much trash a business throws away, the county or city needs to work with their garbage collection companies to get information about the size and number of containers, an estimate of how full the containers are on an average basis, and the frequency of pickup. This information can then be entered into a rate assessment model to set rates that are fair and equitable for all businesses based on the amount of garbage they generate.

Similarly, residences that have been subdivided or have multifamily housing will tend to generate more garbage than a single-family home. To be fair and equitable, the rate should account for these types of residences especially when it comes to multi-family housing. Most often, those properties are categorized as businesses and charge accordingly.   

Other communities may not have property assessment fees and rely solely on gate fees (or tipping fees) for their revenue. A tipping fee is a fee that is paid by those that dispose of waste at a solid waste facility. This could be at a landfill or a transfer station. The fee is typically assessed on a per weight basis which allows the fee to be assessed fairly across all users. Rate setting for this type of program can be much easier than property assessed fees by establishing one single fee on a per ton basis.