Sioux Falls annual free landfill pass goes digital

Don’t expect to find the city’s annual landfill pass in your mail this year.

Instead, the Sioux Falls Regional Sanitary Landfill is taking a digital approach that officials say is designed to make the program more accessible and efficient.

For the past decade, the city has sent out mailers to homeowners serving as a one-time free pass to the landfill to drop up to 10,000 pounds of materials.

“It’s a great opportunity for our homeowners,” said Donny Kuper, superintendent of the landfill.

“The residents would give us those postcards, and our staff would manually track and maintain those postcards.”

Annually, about 55,000 passes would be sent out, and about 25 percent of those were used.

“We know this program can be better and will allow more residents to utilize the program,” Kuper said.

The Sioux Falls Regional Sanitary Landfill now will scan driver’s licenses or state ID instead of collecting the free passes. It’s still one load per household address and up to 10,000 pounds. The goal is to start the digital approach April 3 and allow residents to use the pass until the end of the year.

In 2024 and beyond, the idea is to open it up all year.

“This program would allow more people to use it, such as people living in apartment buildings or other multifamily housing that maybe didn’t get a utility bill,” Kuper said.

“If we can get more participation, that just means a cleaner city.”

The change also eliminates the cost to print and mail passes. The software also helps reduce manual labor needed to keep track of usage, he said.

“The ultimate goal of the program is to help keep the community clean.”