Wasatch Front Waste says fee increases needed after 40% cost rise; Copperton recycling nearing district goals

Wasatch Front Waste & Recycling officials told the Copperton Town Council on July 16 that the company has increased residential collection fees to cover sharp labor and equipment cost rises and outlined steps intended to hold down future increases.

Pam, a Wasatch Front Waste representative, told the council the company experienced “40% overall, increased costs” tied to labor and equipment after the pandemic and that the board hired a financial advisor (Zions) to review rates. Pam said the company raised rates earlier this year (a 33% increase implemented in 2025) and described a multi-year schedule the consultants recommended: an immediate adjustment (the $6.50 figure presented to the council), plus $1.50 in 2026 and another $1.50 in 2027, to avoid recurring catch-up increases.

The presentation emphasized recruitment and labor costs as the main drivers. Pam said the district added a ‘‘pay for work experience’’ scale to attract CDL drivers and that a board-approved market adjustment contributed roughly $300,000 in higher labor costs this year. To reduce operating expenses, the company said it will buy eight diesel refuse trucks (rather than CNG) to save about $400,000 on acquisition costs and expects resale markets to improve later.

James Kelsey, sustainability coordinator, reviewed Copperton-specific recycling metrics and said Copperton’s diversion rate moved from 16.05% in 2024 to 16.63% year-to-date in 2025; the district target is 18%. Kelsey reported district figures for the Copperton service area: 393 tons of refuse collected in 2024 (about 152 tons year-to-date), 69 tons of recycled material collected in 2024 (about 28 YTD), and just over 5 tons of green waste in 2024 (about 1.5 tons YTD) with nine green-waste subscribers.

Kelsey highlighted the community’s “clean recycle” rate — the share of inbound recycling with acceptable contamination levels — which rose from about 67% in 2021 to 79.5% in 2024 and stood at about 78.5% year-to-date in 2025. He said district goals target an 80% clean rate. He credited increased driver participation in route audits (driver-flagged contamination events rose from two last year to 16 so far in 2025) and regular sample sorts conducted monthly at the material recovery facility to measure contamination and material composition.

Pam and Kelsey described other cost-control measures: changing equipment for leaf-collection (containers rather than trailers), right-sizing light-duty trucks (saving roughly $136,000 this year and smaller recurring savings on replacements), and verifying “go-back” missed-pickup calls via dash-cam review (a test found about 46% of missed-can calls were not substantiated, the presenters said). Pam said January–June savings across several measures were “just over $4,700,000.”

They also illustrated the local environmental benefits from recycling, using the district’s commodity breakdown and EPA conversion factors: estimates cited included 322,000 gallons of water saved, 782 mature trees preserved and 55 metric tons of greenhouse-gas reductions. Kelsey reiterated that commodity values, material composition and contamination drive MRF processing fees, and that outreach — to drivers, schools and residents — remains core to holding processing costs down.

Ending

The council asked clarifying questions about recruiting CDL drivers and about program details; both Pam and Kelsey said they will return with additional route- and canine-service statistics at a future meeting and provide a link or materials the council can share with residents about quarterly billing and upcoming service dates.