REACT is raising fees to pay for the rising cost of landfills.

“The cost of doing landfills and stuff has gone right crazy,” operations manager Lyle Ruf said.

People taking their waste to landfills and transfer stations will pay a minimum $5 fee effective May 1.

Garbage bag tags will be $2.50 per tag and half-tags will no longer be accepted.

A person dropping off one bag will effectively pay a $2.50 entrance fee, where a person bringing $5 or more of garbage or other materials won’t pay anything extra.

The increases stem from REACT having to make its landfills conform to regulations the environment ministry is now enforcing after provincial auditor Judy Ferguson found the ministry “did not have effective processes to regulate landfills.”

That means a landfill can’t simply be a hole in the ground, Ruf said. Cells must be engineered and built with liners to protect groundwater, driving up the cost.

A new landfill cell today costs $600,000, where cells used to only cost around $50,000, Ruf said.

The environment ministry has also ordered the closure of the Humboldt landfill, deeming it a "high-risk" site due to flooding.

The landfill is set to close at the end of May, at which point dropped-off garbage will be transferred to the Hoodoo landfill in the short term before the new landfill near LeRoy opens in mid-June.

Hauling garbage to Saskatoon or Prince Albert would be even more expensive for REACT than upgrading its facilities, Ruf said.