Analysis of MSW Landfill Tipping Fees/2023: Environmental Research & Education Foundation Report

The Environmental Research & Education Foundation (“EREF”) has released its annual report titled:

Analysis of MSW Landfill Tipping Fees – 2023 (“Report”).

The Report undertakes the analysis of Municipal Solid Waste (“MSW”) landfill tipping fees in the United States.

A tipping fee (sometimes referred to as a “gate fee”) is a fee paid by anyone disposing of waste in a landfill. The fee is typically based on the weight of waste per ton.

Attributes of a tipping fee might include:

• Passed down to the waste generator from landfill through fees or taxes.
• Intended to assist with maintenance and operating costs of the landfill.
• Can vary depending upon the available capacity in the landfill.
• Driven by applicable local or state regulations.

The EREF Report was issued on May 31st and states that it includes information from tipping fee data collected from 342 facilities. The two methodologies stated to be used to calculate the national average tipping fee included:

• Unweighted average (described as treating each landfill equally).
• Ton-weighted average (described as accounting for the amount of waste processed by each landfill).

National trends described in this Report include:

• The unweighted average tip fee decreased to $56.80 in 2023, marking a 3% decline from the previous year’s $58.47.
• Similarly, the ton-weighted average tip fee saw a slight decrease to $57.63, down from $57.73 in 2022.
• This decrease marks the first reduction in average tip fees since 2020, following two years of increases.

The Report also addresses tipping fees by region. The Report places Arkansas in the “Southeast Region”. It states that the average tipping fee in this region decreased by $1.56. This is stated to constitute $43.18.

EREF describes itself as a 501(c)(3) class charity that advances scientific research and creates educational pathways that enable innovation and sustainable waste management practices.

A link to the summary of the Report can be found here.