The city of Temple will likely begin receiving Killeen’s annual output of trash, about 100,000 tons per year, sometime in October, according to Don Smith, market area vice president for Waste Management of Central Texas.
Temple owns its own landfill, but Waste Management runs it.
According to the city’s solid waste department, the city charges $28.20 per ton tipping fee for garbage brought in from outside of the city. It is not known if the same fee would apply to Killeen.
Jonathan Graham, Temple city attorney, said that higher volume has other benefits to the city of Temple, allowing for financial and other assistance from Waste Management when it comes time for expansion of the landfill.
“As more and more cities closed their landfills, we were becoming one of the few sources in this area,” he said. “We made provisions to plan for future life of the landfill and to expand it. Waste Management is obligated to assist us financially in expanding and increasing the useful life of the landfill.”
He said increased volume helps the bottom line for the city.
“Waste management is a volume business,” Graham said. “The more we bring in it’s actually helping to offset the cost of running our collection system.” The city collects its own garbage internally.
Killeen has no landfill, and previously its garbage had gone to Travis County. Waste Management officials tried to send Killeen’s trash to Williamson County, but Smith said Williamson balked.
“Since they didn’t want to do that, it seemed like they didn’t want the royalties from that, we talked to Temple city government, and they expressed acceptance,” Smith said. “So the city of Temple will now receive that volume and all the royalties associated with it.”
