TIP fees at the Eaglehawk Landfill are set to be measured by weight rather than trailer load, doubling fees charged to the average user.
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Users are currently charged $61 per tandem trailer load of rubbish, but the council's draft budget proposes charging people $160 per tonne.
Waste Services manager Simon Clay said the average user's tandem trailer load of rubbish weighed 700 kilograms, which would cost $112 under the new fee system.
“At the moment every vehicle gets weighed in and weighed out and from that we can calculate the average weight from a trailer or tandem trailer and what became apparent had been that they had been undercharged," he said.
“We felt that therefore it was appropriate to move to a weight-based charge for everybody that came to the landfill instead of having volume-based charges."
Mr Clay said many commercial builders were flouting the system by posing as home renovators, to pay the cheaper residential rate.
He said they were filling their trailers with heavy bricks, distorting the average trailer load.
Mr Clay said the new fee system would encourage people to dump their recyclables at the recovery yard, which did not charge a fee. "It provides a price-based incentive for people to recycle," he said.
The Heathcote Landfill, which doesn't have the necessary equipment to weigh rubbish, will continue to charge by the trailer load.
However, fees are set to increase by more than 80 per cent, with users being charged $110 per load, up from $61.
Mayor Peter Cox said the changes meant some users would pay more to dump rubbish and others would pay less, with people dumping a small trailer of rubbish potentially decreasing their costs.
He said council did not consider implementing a hard rubbish collection.
"Our view is if you separate your waste you can get a lot of material recycled - the Eaglehawk Recycle Shop has a pickup service."
Environment Victoria spokesman Nick Roberts said there was no correlation between tip fees and rates of illegal dumping.
“If you actually look at the correlation of where the largest fees are in municipalities that doesn’t match up with incidents of illegal dumping," he said.