Kelly Davis has been a garbage truck driver from Petersburg for just a little over an year, yet she has many stories about what she finds in trash cans. A recent drive through the slippery Noseeum Street, she described the surprise she experienced.
“I took it out and found dead bird,” she said. “I closed the lid. It was me and Mikey and I thought “Oh my God It’s dead bird!’ and Mikey is like, ‘Yes, it happens’ and I’m like’God, gross!”
This chicken is just an insignificant portion of the countless pounds of trash that Petersburg residents clear out every year. Petersburg has just agreed to a new trash disposal agreement that is 34% more expensive than the previous one, and they’re now hoping to come up with ways to cut prices for residents living in the town’s remote area that already have a high cost of living.
However, garbage removal is a major problem in Southeast Alaska is expensive. It’s also difficult. Since it’s an archipelago towns aren’t able to simply transport their garbage along onto the main road and dump it into a waste site. Municipalities often make their garbage into huge blocks, referred to as “bales” and transport it into the Lower 48. Chris Cotta, Director of Public Works in Petersburg, stated that shipping costs are the most significant sanitation issue in the region.
The higher cost of the city’s new waste disposal agreement won’t be passed along to Petersburg residents this year. However, higher costs could translate into higher prices for customers. One of the most simple solutions is to simply dispose of less.
Cotta estimated that about half Cotta estimated that nearly halfof the trash that is discarded could be composted, or recycled.
“It’s likely that the majority of the waste that goes into the trash can be diverted in a way,” he said. “Either made compostable or disposed of in an existing recycling stream to be recycled into an alternative.”
The local tribe, known as the Petersburg Indian Association, already has a composting program that is small. Cotta works with this tribe in order to explore the possibility of expanding the program to the entire community.
However, Cotta and other are looking at solutions that span across the region. A decade ago eight municipalities in Southeast came together to explore options. Cotta is the chairperson of the group. It’s known as”the Southeast Alaska Solid Waste Authority or SEASWA. He noted that although Juneau, Sitka and Ketchikan aren’t yet part of SEASWA He hopes that they will be a part of the group in the near future.
“If we could persuade several from the bigger communities to sign together and become part of SEASWA I think we’d have more bargaining ability,” he said.
Cotta added that if the majority of communities of the Southeast were to join the group they might be able reduce the cost of future agreements for shipping firms.
They’re open to investigating other solutions too. When the group was looking at options about 10 years ago, it discovered baling garbage and shipping it south was the most efficient solution. This is why many communities have moved to this model, but Cotta noted that the rising costs of shipping have changed the calculation.
He’s also curious about whether new technologies can provide the solution.
In Petersburg The upcoming price increase for customers will be just about a few cups of coffee per month. This may not sound like much. However, Cotta is worried. He says that if prices for garbage rise to a certain point, customers won’t be able to pay.
“We are left with the situation of garbage being dumped in the woods or on homes, as it’s too expensive to dispose of the garbage,” Cotta said.
In the case of organizations that create much more garbage than the average home in Petersburg and beyond, the expense really is a lot. The cost of garbage for Petersburg School District Petersburg School District is much more than just the cost of a couple of coffees. Shannon Baird is the Director of Finance for the District. She figured out the possibility of an growth over the course of a school year.
“We estimated that it could be 15,000 dollars,” Baird said. “That’s $15,000 we don’t have to invest in other things such as school activities and equipment.”
The group is planning to apply for funds to conduct a study this autumn. They hope that it will aid in determine the best course of action in Southeast Alaska.
