What percent of total disposal cost for landfill waste goes to collection?

• A. 25 percent
• B. 50 percent
• C. 75 percent
• D. 90 percent

Answer: (B)

Understanding how disposal costs are split helps explain why roughly half of the total disposal cost goes to collection. Getting waste from homes and businesses to the landfill involves ongoing labor, driver hours, fuel, vehicle maintenance, and administrative work to route and schedule pickups. These collection and hauling activities are consistently required and can be quite expensive, making them a major portion of the disposal budget. The remaining costs cover tipping fees at the landfill, site operations, environmental controls, and administrative overhead. Because collection and hauling dominate the ongoing costs while tipping and site operations are also significant but not as dominant, about 50 percent is the best estimate among the options. The other percentages would understate or overstate the share going to collection.