The Essex Windsor Solid Waste Authority has cleared the last hurdle in getting its 2019 budget approved.
A 4.1 per cent increase has now been approved at both the county and city level.
Essex County council gave the go ahead earlier this month while city council gave its stamp of approval Monday night.
The authority's Manager of Finance and Administration Michelle Bishop says the hike is necessary to balance the books by 2027 — something that wouldn't happen after a 2 per cent increase last year and no increase back in 2017.
She says costs continue to increase across the board.
"The biggest increase that we have is our debenture on the regional landfill. So that's like your mortgage on your home. That is about 2 per cent a year of our total operating budget as well as the regular items everyone else is seeing, salaries and wage increases, fuel increases, insurance costs and other operating expenditures."
Bishop says recycling revenue has plummeted as municipalities aren't shipping product outside the province anymore.
"The recycling market is not where we'd like it to be right now. China is not taking recycled material or not taking the quantities that it was. So now the market is saturated because all the Ontario municipalities are trying to get rid of their recyclable goods and therefore the prices have dropped."
She says even with the increase, the authority's 2019 budget is still about $500,000 in the hole.
The increase amounts to an additional $249,000 for the city and $213,000 for the county.
The authority's total budget for 2019 is just over $11.8-million.