A member of the Haines Borough Solid Waste Working Group was unhappy with two transfer station plans presented Tuesday as she believed they disregarded incentives for recycling and reducing waste.

Borough public facilities director Brad Ryan and group member Burl Sheldon created two basic solid waste plans around a transfer station model that they presented to the group. A transfer station is a temporary processing site for waste.

Group member Melissa Aronson challenged both models, saying she thought neither would encourage residents to reduce their waste stream.

“What is the economic incentive to reduce waste?” Aronson asked.

Both Ryan and Sheldon said their plans did not offer incentives for reducing waste.

The group, which has been meeting since December, is chipping away at the goal of creating a solid waste management plan for the borough and had discussed the use of transfer stations.

Conveniently located transfer stations would possibly reduce the problem of illegal dumping that was labeled as a major issue in the valley as well as allow for garbage to be self-hauled.

Ryan proposed one transfer station be located within the townsite and serve as a “one-stop shop” for trash disposal, with another located near Klukwan.

“In my mind, the scope is the kitchen sink,” Ryan said.

He envisioned municipal solid waste, recycling, appliances, hazardous waste, batteries, glass, electronic waste, compost and oil all be collected and processed for shipping at the location.

He estimated a facility like this would cost $1 million to $5 million. He planned for the facility to be maintained by at least two fulltime staff and include buildings to house equipment. Ryan favored a location on borough land near the wastewater treatment plant.

Ryan suggested a payment model where households pay a flat fee for garbage every month, but also toyed with the idea of charging a fee if a household goes above a certain poundage in garbage.

“To me, this is where the conversation starts,” Ryan said. “We can all dream up a transfer station if we want, but how do we make it work for the community? I tried to put some numbers to it, some ideas to it, but it’s up to discussion of the group.”

Sheldon’s plan called for three or four centrally located transfer stations where citizens could dump garbage and recycling for “free.” The service would be paid for by tax, and collection rates would drop for those people or businesses who need trash picked up. Sheldon said ideally the borough would have some control over how the trash is disposed and that the facilities comply with regulations.

In rough sketches of his vision of how the transfer stations would look, Sheldon drew a ramp where cars would pull up with trash disposal on one side and sorted recycling bins on the other.

When Aronson again questioned the incentive to recycle, Sheldon said the borough or Haines Friends of Recycling would be responsible for educating the public about the benefits of reducing waste, “…other than that, I’m not proposing to twist any arms,” Sheldon said.

Aronson said the group needs to keep in mind the value of reducing the waste stream.

“In order to do that, we need recycling programs where things are actually recycled and not just ending up in the landfill. We need some strategies that attract people to recycle, to reduce their waste streams,” Aronson said.

Community Waste Solutions representative Sally Garton said in her experience, the general public of Haines will do whatever is easiest when it comes to recycling versus throwing something in the garbage.

Borough manager Debra Schnabel challenged Aronson to put forth his own proposal similar to Sheldon’s and Ryan’s that better addresses recycling.

“I want to challenge you…instead of critiquing what’s being presented for what it lacks, I’d like to see a proposal put forward by you that includes all the things that you want to see in recycling that still acknowledges and can deal with that 75 percent (of waste that is not recycled,)” Schnabel said. “Somewhere it has to happen that these things come together.”

“If you’ve got a proposal that gets the recycling out of (people’s) trash and is cost effective, please let us have it,” Sheldon said to Aronson.

Both plans were first drafts and did not address how Community Waste Solutions and the landfill would be involved.

Group chair Darsie Culbeck said the group will vote at its next meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 15 on a list of problems with the current solid waste system that it’s trying to solve.