The Haines Borough is looking at getting into the waste management business.
Assembly member Debra Schnabel recently submitted a draft solid waste management ordinance to the municipality’s commerce committee for consideration.
Her 17-page document proposes every residence, business, nonprofit, government and harbor slip holder in the borough either pay for curbside garbage collection or pay a lower rate to retain the ability to haul their own garbage.
Waste management in the Chilkat Valley is now provided by three private handlers: Communityh Waste Solutions, Acme Transfer, and the nonprofit Haines Friends of Recycling.
Schnabel says the current system is broken because it squeezes the three private handlers, keeping each from investing in infrastructure, and that it leads to illegal dumping of waste around the valley.
Schnabel said she worked to make the “mandatory accounts” system accommodating, so people could still choose to haul their own waste if they wanted to.
“I’ve tried really hard to create a flexible program where people aren’t going to be forced to buy something they don’t need, but they are going to be forced to be accountable for what they do,” Schnabel said.
The operation would not be municipally owned or operated. The borough would contract with a private company to provide the services, Schnabel said.
“My vision would be that the borough would put out a request for proposals to one certificated entity, and they would manage all the solid waste issues: recycling, composting, glass, bulky items, junk cars, the stuff out of the sewer treatment plant. Everything,” Schnabel said.
Two businesses in the borough have Regulatory Commission of Alaska certificates to provide waste disposal service. Community Waste Solutions’ certificate allows it to operate both inside and outside the townsite. Acme Transfer Co. holds a certificate that allows it only to provide refuse services outside the townsite.
Haines Friends of Recycling, a nonprofit, does not hold an RCA certificate.
CWS currently charges $64 per month for typical residential curbside collection: one 32-gallon can of trash per week. For commercial collection (202 gallons of trash per week), the current rate is $354 per month.
Because so many people choose to self-haul and don’t participate in collection, the rates are high, Schnabel said. Like water and electric rates, if more people become a part of the user group, costs are spread more widely and individual rates go down.
CWS consultant Burl Sheldon said “way less than half” of CWS customers subscribe to the company’s collection service. “The fundamental issue with the price of collection is there is not enough people getting collection, and the reason is because we have a self-haul driven system,” Sheldon said.
CWS is aware its rates are high, Sheldon said. “The company is concerned about high rates. They want rates to come down,” he said.
Right now there isn’t an answer to an important question: How much will the average person pay per month under the proposed system? That answer will take some serious number-crunching by any company wanting to respond to the RFP, if it ever goes out, Schnabel said.
As someone who self-hauls and annually spends very little on garbage, Mayor Stephanie Scott is very keen on learning the answer to that question.
“Last year I paid $57.63 for garbage disposal. I self-haul and I’m personally worried that I’m going to have to pay more, and I think there are other people like me, and I don’t know if the system borough-wide can account for people with so little disposal,” Scott said.
Scott said while she thinks Schnabel’s ordinance is an “incredible piece of work,” she doesn’t know if people will get on board. “I’m not sure we’re there yet as a community,” Scott said.
Even if Haines isn’t there yet, many other communities in Southeast are. “We are one of the very few exceptions,” Schnabel said.
Refuse collection is required within the city limits of Craig, Petersburg, Sitka and Wrangell. However, with the exception of Sitka – which contracts with a private company for collection services – waste services in those communities are municipally owned.
Lee Burgess, Wrangell’s finance director, said the city bundles garbage collection in with water and electricity bills. “Code says everyone has to receive that service and pay related fees,” Burgess said.
Fees collected are deposited in an enterprise fund, and rates are adjusted periodically to keep the fund “self-sustaining” and not reliant on other sources for funding.
According to a comparative study compiled by CWS, residential garbage collection in Wrangell (48 gallons of trash per week) is $27 per month. Commercial collection (202 gallons per week) is $48.70 per month.
The Petersburg Borough uses a similar system. Curbside garbage collection is mandatory within city limits, and the service is funded by ratepayers.
Chris Cotta, Petersburg’s assistant public works director, said the borough also offers collection outside of city limits. “Those beyond the borough’s regular collection routes must pack waste in and dispose of it at the baling facility or take it to another authorized collection point,” Cotta said.
Those who live outside the city limits and don’t pay for collection haul their garbage to a facility and pay per pound for disposal, Cotta said.
Petersburg, where the municipality has owned and operated refuse disposal services for decades, briefly switched to a private contractor in the 1980s, Cotta said. “It was a failed experiment,” he said.
According to CWS’s information, Petersburg charges $33.83 per month for collection of a 32-gallon can of trash every week. It charges $119 per month for basic commercial service, or 202 gallons of trash per week.
How recycling would factor into Schnabel’s proposed system still needs to be hammered out. For example, if there would be two receptacles (one for trash and one for recycling) and whether there would be separate or combined rates.
Schnabel acknowledged the draft will likely go through a lot of work before even coming to the assembly – CWS, Acme Transfer Co., and Haines Friends of Recycling each have been given a copy of the ordinance and asked to comment.
Haines Friends of Recycling board chair Melissa Aronson said Schnabel’s ordinance, as written, would effectively eliminate the nonprofit because it doesn’t hold an RCA certificate.
“Obviously, we are quite concerned about this,” Aronson said. “It would be the end of Haines Friends of Recycling.”
Haines Friends of Recycling serves about 250 families and is largely run by volunteers, Aronson said.
While Aronson agrees with Schnabel’s attempt to address trash issues in the borough, it shouldn’t edge out Haines Friends of Recycling in the process, she said. “We need an ordinance that takes care of solid waste, but not at the expense of losing an asset like Haines Friends of Recycling.”
Aronson is taking the draft ordinance to the nonprofit’s board next week and will attend an upcoming commerce committee meeting to discuss the ordinance, she said.
Paul Nelson, owner of Acme Transfer Co., said he is also concerned about Haines Friends of Recycling’s fate if the draft ordinance were to pass as-is. “A company is not going to be able to recycle and return at the same rate they are because they are a nonprofit,” Nelson said.
“I would hope Friends of Recycling would be allowed to continue and be supported,” he added.
Nelson said he believes Schnabel is “headed in the right direction” and is glad the borough is trying to get a solid waste management program on the books. However, he wants to keep government involvement to a minimum.
“The government has to get involved in waste management, but I’m not really in favor of them piling on a bunch of regulations,” Nelson said.
Nelson said he supports the idea of the borough contracting with a private company to provide the service and said he would bid on an RFP if Schnabel’s proposal gets that far.
Schnabel maintains that the current system is broken for several reasons. With three providers, the garbage market is fractured to the point that outfits can’t make enough money to sustain themselves.
“The fracturing of the market caused everybody who was engaged in handling solid waste to have a smaller piece of the pie. So none of the operators were making enough money to support the development of their infrastructure, except Haines Friends of Recycling, which is borne on the backs of volunteers,” Schnabel said.
Schnabel also pointed out that under the current, privatized system, there is no incentive or requirement for disposing of garbage responsibly. People illegally dump rusty appliances, old furniture, giant bags of trash and other miscellaneous garbage throughout the borough. Schnabel provided photos of illegal dumping on the Chilkat River beach, 5 Mile, 13 Mile and 16 Mile.
“I understand that many people in the community have done an excellent job of reducing, reusing and recycling within the microcosm of their own household. This proposal will appeal to the sensibility that it has to be done collectively in order for it to matter in the community,” Schnabel said.
The draft solid waste management ordinance will be discussed at an upcoming commerce committee meeting, to be set at next week’s assembly meeting.