Editorial policy

What we refuse to publish, and why

These are live gaps in our coverage, listed rather than papered over. In each case a number exists somewhere on the internet and we have chosen not to repeat it.

Wisconsin landfill environmental fees per ton by waste category

Why not: wisconsin.gov is unreachable from the build environment, so the fee schedule could not be read at the source. Publishing the numbers second-hand would put this site in the same citation loop it exists to break.

What we publish instead: Which Wisconsin statutes impose which fee, and a direct link to the DNR fee schedule so the reader gets the current amount from the regulator.

Wisconsin Landfill Environmental Fees for Various Waste Categories ($/ton)

EREF 2023 regional tipping fees for the Midwest, Mountains/Plains, South Central and Southeast

Why not: Only the Northeast and Pacific regional averages appear in public reporting of the EREF 2023 survey. The remaining four regional figures circulating online trace back to paraphrases of the paid report, not to EREF.

What we publish instead: The national averages and the two regional figures EREF has stated publicly, with the direction of travel for the rest.

2024 Analysis of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) Landfill Tipping Fees

Per-city dumpster permit fees

Why not: Every per-city fee figure we could find traces to a commercial aggregator rather than to the city. A wrong fee is worse than no fee.

What we publish instead: The issuing department, its phone number and its URL, so the reader gets the fee from the office that charges it.

A single "standard" rental period

Why not: Included days genuinely vary by hauler, from three days to open-ended month-to-month. There is no standard to report.

What we publish instead: The range, and the question to ask when you call.

State DOT axle-weight limits for roll-off trucks

Why not: These are set state by state and we have not verified them against each state’s primary DOT source.

What we publish instead: Why the truck’s legal weight — not the container’s size — is what actually caps your load.

How we record verification

Every source entry records how the claim was confirmed, because that matters when a reader wants to reproduce the check. "Direct" means the document was fetched and read. "Search index" means the publisher's own page was read through a search index because the host blocks automated requests — mass.gov, for example, returns HTTP 403 to our build environment. "Unretrieved" means we could not reach it, and claims depending on it are not published.

Review cadence and corrections

Regulatory pages are reviewed on a rolling schedule and carry a visible review date. Cost figures are refreshed when a new EREF survey is released. Every page names its reviewer.

If a figure on this site is wrong, tell us and we will fix it and say what changed. That includes municipalities correcting their own permit records — email [email protected].

AI use

Generative tools are used in drafting and in assembling this site's data pipeline. They are not used to source facts. No regulatory claim on this site rests on a model's recollection: every one is traced to a named document with a URL and a verification date, and where the document could not be reached we publish the gap instead of the claim.

Full source register