Landfill Tipping Fees Reach New Record, Despite Slow Times

Date: August 17, 2010

Source: Waste Business Journal

Waste Business Journal reports that the average price to bury a ton of municipal solid waste (MSW) in US landfills has reached a record high of $43.99, up over 6% since last year, even amid the economic downturn. Meanwhile, landfill volumes, while down 4.8% since last year, are starting to come back. Last year's volumes were down over 12% year over year from the same period in 2008. The strongest gains were in the Northeast, where prices were up over 8%, the west (10%), and the Pacific states, in which prices rose by an average 7% year over year. According to James Thompson, publisher of Waste Business Journal, "the data show that landfill owners continue to exert pricing discipline, even in tough times."

"Increased consolidation of waste management firms is giving them more pricing power, especially with their enhanced ability to control the flow of wastes into their own landfills versus having to take waste collected to a competitor's facility. Company managers, goaded by rising operating costs, and mindful of painful lessons of the past when pricing was sacrificed for market share, are now focused more intensely on return on invested capital and appropriately pricing their ever more valuable landfill capacity," said Thompson.

To learn more, visit: www.wasteinfo.com/wbjpriceindex.htm.

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