Deep dumpster dive
Buildings with six or more units pay taxes for curbside garbage pickup that they don’t get
by Antonia Zwissler
Property taxes and water bills are set to go up in the next few years to pay for incomprehensibly expensive suburban land use. And for now, once every other week, Halifax’s renters subsidize the suburban curbside garbage collection.
“Halifax’s solid waste contracts cover residential buildings up to six units, and beyond that, they have to arrange and pay for their own solid waste collection. Do, uh, the 6+ unit buildings get a tax break for that or no?” wrote local researcher Kevin Wilson on Bluesky on Monday last week.
They do not. People who live in buildings with more than six units usually have a dumpster out back or, if they’re lucky, a garbage chute on their floor, and don’t have to worry about garbage day. Every day is garbage day in an apartment. However, the people who own those buildings with more than six units must pay to empty those dumpsters filled by the garbagepalooza of private waste management. But since the landlords of these non-tax-capped properties don’t receive any tax-rate breaks for this, that means they pay for the service of garbage collection out of the general rate which they do not get. And they are paying out of pocket for private garbage collection. But since landlords hate paying for things out of pocket, they set rents to reflect the higher cost of doing garbage business.
