Trash disposal in Southeast Alaska is expensive — and complicated.
Kelly Davis has been driving trash trucks in Petersburg for almost a year. The borough hopes to recycle and compost more to bring down costs. Kelly Davis has been a trash truck driver in Petersburg for less than a year but she already has lots of stories about the things she sees in garbage cans. On a recent trip down bumpy Noseeum Street, she described one surprise.
But trash disposal in Southeast Alaska is expensive. And complicated. Because it’s an archipelago, towns can’t just truck their garbage down the highway to a shared landfill. A lot of municipalities compress their trash into giant blocks called “bales” and barge it down to the Lower 48. Chris Cotta, Director of Public Works in Petersburg, said shipping prices are the biggest sanitation challenge across the region.
But Cotta and others are also exploring region-wide solutions. Over a decade ago, eight municipalities in Southeast banded together to look at possibilities. Cotta is acting chair of the group, called the Southeast Alaska Solid Waste Authority, or SEASWA. He said while Juneau, Sitka and Ketchikan are not yet members of SEASWA, he hopes they’ll join eventually.
They’re interested in exploring other ideas as well. When the group looked at solutions about a decade ago, they found baling and shipping garbage south to be the most effective solution. That’s why many communities moved to that model but Cotta said increased shipping costs have changed that calculation.In Petersburg, the coming price increase for most customers will only be the equivalent of a few cups of coffee each month. That might not seem like a lot. But Cotta is concerned.
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