Six mornings a week, the six-member staff at the local landfill run the baler, which crushes all types of garbage into consistently sized blocks. They load each one into a dump truck, and stack them into a neatly organized wall of garbage blocks on site. Each of these guys are certified to operate the baler while also working as mechanics, welders, heavy equipment operators and more on any given day at the landfill.
Jeff Johnson has worked at the landfill for nearly 27 years. He said the average local household produces about 5 pounds of trash per day.
“Residents are allowed 40 pounds of hazardous waste a month for free. And five gallons of liquid," Johnson said.
The Kodiak Island Borough landfill also accepts up to 260 pounds of certain kinds of residential garbage at no charge, including furniture, including the household chemicals and limited amounts of used oil Johnson mentioned. But not all of that goes into the baler.
Hazardous waste is temporarily stored in shipping containers to be shipped off island in the spring or fall. Republic Services is the third party contractor the borough works with to collect those hazardous waste items during the annual community event and get them off island. Most residential trash is brought to the landfill by Alaska Waste, the local collection contractor, but it can also come from the Coast Guard base, local businesses and construction contractors. That brings in an average of 20,000 pounds of trash per delivery/load according to Johnson.
On the other side of the landfill, piles of tires, scrap metal and construction materials sit at the foot of massive manmade hills of gravel and rock. Johnson said construction and demolition debris, referred to as C&D, accounts for a huge portion of what’s buried under these hills.
The borough charges $400 per ton for construction debris, which is the same rate charged to dispose of fishing gear, or one ton of waste delivered by the Coast Guard contractor, or the borough’s collection contractor – Alaska Waste.
Otherwise, the majority of the waste being dumped at the landfill is recyclable. That includes paper, cardboard and metal containers. The current regional solid waste management plan, which was written in 2008, says 37% of non-C&D which is Municipal Solid Waste or MSW materials at the landfill are paper.
In addition to that, nearly 23% of materials found at the landfill are compostable but there is no collection service for those materials in the borough. The city composting facility, located next door to the landfill, only handles bio solids and diverts that sludge from taking up more space in the landfill.
And that’s the type of information the borough and Kodiak Area Native Association or KANA want to update. They are collaborating on an update.
“Number one is making sure that the village communities are represented,"
Stephanie Mason, the rural waste management coordinator with KANA, said. “They’re not represented in that original plan and they reside on borough land and they pay property taxes.”
She said she hopes the updated plan will also show the costs of closing the landfill and what comes after. Based on data collected in the 2008 RSWMP, the estimated costs to close the landfill at that time were $4.6 million.
“And guess what? It costs even more to close a landfill and maintain that landfill," Mason said. "That landfill will forever need to be maintained.”
Codi Allen, the engineering and facilities director for the borough, said the latest estimates are that the landfill is roughly 40% full. He said the borough is considering ways to save space and preparing to build a new one through the plan.
“We’re in the draft phase of it right now, working with our community partners, KANA and the villages to look at a long term plan for what that means. And one element of that plan would be: what do we do with the landfill once we run out of space," Allen said.
Kodiak Island residents have until August 30 to provide their input. Officials are taking comments through an online survey.
Allen said the borough is expecting Jacobs Engineering Group to finish the draft to be completed by the end of September, and a final plan by the end of the year.
