Greater Lebanon Refuse Authority board approves 2026 budget

This article was funded by LebTown donors as part of our Civic Impact Reporting Project.

The board of the Greater Lebanon Refuse Authority approved a 2026 budget recently that includes a $10 increase in the tipping fee — or what haulers pay to dispose of waste — to $82 per ton.

Read More: Refuse authority presents draft budget for 2026, revenues to increase

The budget anticipates total revenues — operational and other revenues — of about $13.32 million, or $1.3 million more than 2025 revenues, the result of the new tipping fee.

Total expenses for 2026 are expected to be $11.23 million, more than $1.3 million of which is budgeted for purchase of capital equipment: a Caterpillar track loader for $658,920, an excavator for $389,543, and a water truck for up to $280,000.

Also included is $390,000 for installation of 13 vertical wells at the Schilling landfill. Those wells are designed to collect methane and also to monitor methane, oxygen and temperature in the landfill.

At a previous meeting, GLRA executive director Skip Garner said the tipping fee increase was needed to help finance three large future projects.

These are the capping of the 18-acre Schilling landfill at a cost of $3.5 million to $5 million; a 10-acre expansion of the Heilmandale landfill with a $2.5- to $3.5-million price tag; and construction of a pre-treatment plant for the leachate or liquids that are produced as trash decomposes. That last project could cost between $8 million and $10 million.

Garner reported tonnage of waste disposed in 2025 is about 132,000 tons, similar to tonnage received in 2024. Year-to-date revenues from tipping fees were more than budgeted for 2025.

In other business, GLRA recycling coordinator Amy Mazzella di Bosco announced that the authority’s annual Christmas tree recycling program will run from Dec. 26 through Feb. 21. Trees need to be decoration-free.

The board of the Greater Lebanon Refuse Authority meets at 1800 Russell Road. The next meeting will be 7 p.m., Tuesday, Jan. 6. The meetings are open to the public and do not require registration.