Tipping fee for waste disposal at refuse authority to increase in 2026

Haulers will pay more in 2026 to dispose of a ton of waste – $82 per ton up from $72 per ton – at the Greater Lebanon Refuse Authority.

This is the first price increase since January 2020, GLRA executive director Skip Garner said Friday. Even with the increase, GLRA will have one of the lowest tipping fees of the 13 waste facilities in the region, he added.

The disposal site with the next closest rate is Berky’s Transfer in Fleetwood, which charges a minimum of $73 for up to 1,000 pounds of municipal waste with additional tonnage at $100 per ton, according to a summary of 2025 tipping fees from neighboring counties provided by GLRA.

This year’s increase was necessitated by three large future projects, Garner said in an email. One of those is the capping of the Schilling landfill, which has received the county’s waste since 1990. Garner estimated that project could cost between $3.5 million and $5 million.

A 10-acre expansion of the Heilmandale landfill is the second with a $2.5- to $3.5-million price tag. This expansion will enable disposal of waste for the next four to five years.

The biggest ticket item at between $8 million and $10 million involves construction of a pre-treatment plant for the leachate or liquids that are produced as trash is compressed and settles. Leachate can be high in ammonia, so must be treated before being discharged.