Residents have until Saturday to take advantage of one free annual trip to the city dump.
Starting Oct. 31, all loads arriving at the Sandy Hollow Landfill Site will be subject to regular rates of $10 for the first 100 kilograms and $145 per tonne for additional weight.
It's a change that has been on the books for years, detailed in Barrie's Sustainable Waste Management Strategy, developed to help extend the life of the city's landfill site to 2035.
In 2008, the landfill's closing date was pegged at 2017. Re-compacting waste there added another seven years to the landfill's life, taking it to 2024. The strategy aims to add another decade. Extending Sandy Hollow's life also delays some large expenditures for the city. Closing it would cost $6.5 million, then $600,000 annually for maintenance.
In the strategy, there is a goal of increasing diversion rates for Barrie residents from 45.37 per cent in 2010 to 50 percent by the end of this year, 54 per cent by 2021 and 57 per cent by 2027.
More initiatives are set out for possible implementation from 2017 to 2021. They include a bylaw for mandatory diversion and reducing the number of residential collection free bags from two every two weeks to one every two weeks.
