So why then do certain cities charge fees and other do not? Do some cities feel that the cost of garbage collection is something that property taxes should cover? In addition to the four that don’t generate revenue, five other cities only collect a nominal amount of revenue and certainly not enough to come anywhere near the cost of the service. Reviewing those specific cities did not reveal any geographic evidence that fees are not acceptable in specific countries.
However when we look at the net cost, an interesting picture emerges where three cities actually make money from the garbage collection service - yes, revenue from fees per tonne exceed the cost per tonne. When we look at the raw costs (operating and capital), costs can range from US$30–US$580/tonne. For this indicator, we separated costs from revenue and compared them side by side (see below). These measures reflect the total costs (operating and capital) for garbage collection and the total revenue collected (through fees and other charges), divided by the number of reported tons of garbage collected during the period. Cost and revenue of collecting a ton of garbage.