Complaints have petered out as residents get used to the new $6 small load fee at the Foothills dump.
The fee, in effect since Sept. 1, is for users with loads of less than 100 kg.
"The initially high volume of complaints received by phone, email or in person has decreased over the duration of the implementation," said Regional District of Fraser-Fort George operations leader Dana Ferguson in a report. "The majority of the concerns received were from residents that live within city limits who do not receive garbage collection services."
The regional district handed out swipe cards to residents in electoral area A to offset the charge, as they do not have reasonable access to another location for waste disposal.
Introducing the fee has reduced the amount of customers accessing the site in general, wrote Ferguson, with 38 per cent fewer bins hauled at the site than in September 2012.
That reduction at the Foothills Boulevard regional landfill has also been accompanied by a six to 30 per cent increase in the number of bins hauled from rural transfer stations at Shelley, Cummings Road, Miworth, Buckhorn and Chief Lake.
The Vanway transfer station also received an additional 134,000 kg of waste last month, which is a 27 per cent increase compared to the same period the year before. "This could also be attributed to the Quinn Street Regional Recycling Depot no longer accepting refuse at the site," said Ferguson.
RDFFG spokesperson Renee McCloskey said the fears that implementation of the fee would lead to an increase in illegal dumping haven't necessarily come to fruition.
It's difficult to correlate the two, she said, noting there was "ample examples of illegal dumping before the fee."
But the regional district is trying to formulate a better plan of attack against the practice and continues to work with the Conservation Office and relevant authorities to educate residents about responsible waste disposal.
A YouTube video outlining the effects of illegal dumping and who residents can contact when they see it is now available at: http://youtu.be/sip2MSzkcHs
