Montgomery County official outlines solid-waste plan changes, proposes small per-ton fee increase and tarping rule

John Beneer, assistant director of Montgomery County Environmental Services, told the Riverside City Council on April 21 that Montgomery County's five-year solid-waste management plan update will ask the Ohio EPA to approve a modest fee increase and new operational rules that could affect local haulers and residents.

Beneer said the plan, required every five years by the Ohio EPA under the state solid-waste statute, focuses on reducing reliance on landfills and ensuring 20 years of disposal capacity for residential, commercial and industrial generators. "I'm not gonna go through the entire 400 pages of the plan," Beneer said as he provided a highlights briefing to the council.

The nut of Beneer's presentation was threefold: an accounting correction that raised the county's combined commercial-and-residential diversion rate, a recommended per-ton fee increase to support programs, and a rule adopted in 2024 requiring incoming loads to transfer stations to be tarped.

Beneer said a closer review of reporting from local processors found previously misclassified tonnage. One processor reclassified about 62% of what it had reported as industrial to the commercial sector, representing roughly 16,000 tons; another processor had not been reporting and agreed to begin doing so. "We are now up to about 25.4%, which meets that goal," Beneer said, referring to the county's recycling/diversion target.

On funding, Beneer said the solid-waste district's principal revenue mechanism is a generation fee assessed at transfer stations. The fee was $2 per ton in 2010 and raised to $3 per ton in that plan. The new plan's financial-advisory committee recommended raising the fee to $3.65 per ton and applying an annual 6% escalation to better match projected costs over a 20-year budget projection. Beneer translated the increase into household terms: the recommended change would amount to about 65 cents per household per year (about 5 cents per month) in the first year, with the proposed annual escalator adding roughly 22 cents per household per year on average thereafter.

Beneer cautioned that the fee change would take effect only if the plan is approved by the director and the Ohio EPA; he also warned that haulers and municipalities bidding contracts for 2026 and later should factor the new fees and the annual escalator into their pricing.

The plan also addresses litter and illegal dumping. Beneer noted the district funds Keep Montgomery County Beautiful grants, an enforcement officer in the sheriff's office and health-department work. Citing the 2024 county rule, he said the district is developing an outreach-and-compliance program to implement the tarping requirement at the transfer station: "...anybody that bring[s] waste into the transfer station that load must be tarped," he said.

Beneer outlined several current district programs that would continue to be funded under the plan, including household hazardous-waste collection, a tire program, corrugated-board recycling and a styrofoam recycling pilot (quarterly collections with a planned permanent drop-off location), and an environmental-education program that reaches about 3,000 students annually.

Council members asked about contamination in recycling streams and the county's use of pilot programs such as an artificial-intelligence camera pilot in Centerville that photographs and identifies contamination at curbside and sends automated postcards to addresses to correct behavior. Beneer said contamination has improved from about 21% to roughly 15% and that the county is aiming for about 10%.

Why it matters: If the county's plan is approved by the director and Ohio EPA, the recommended $3.65 per-ton fee and the annual escalation would be implemented in 2026 and subsequently, potentially raising hauler rates and municipal contract prices. Beneer said the county will present a resolution to local governments asking for endorsement of the plan at a future meeting.

Beneer's full plan will be filed with the Ohio EPA for review; Beneer told council that Montgomery County staff will return to the council at a later meeting with a resolution asking the city to endorse the plan.