Valley trash on the rise

March 6, 2007

By Russell Stigall

Frontiersman

WASILLA - About $3.5 million of Valley money is going to waste.

Construction for the central landfill's new solid waste cell begins this summer, and Greg Goodale, Central Mat-Su solid waste division manager, said his new cell will have five-years worth of air his team gradually will displace with waste.

Funding for Mat-Su's solid waste service is not attached to property mill rates. The landfill must earn enough money, by selling dump space by weight, to fund the new landfill space.

&#8220We call it ‘pay as you throw,'” Goodale said.

Goodale sells air space for $50 per ton of garbage. Or $5 for less than 200 pounds.

&#8220We haven't changed our rates in seven years,” Goodale said.

All the money goes into the solid waste enterprise fund. Solid waste builds each cell to last five years to give time to raise money for the next cell.

The time has come for a new cell at Central Mat-Su. Unlined cell 2a and lined cell 2b are near capacity. The Mat-Su borough assembly at its Feb. 20 meeting approved a resolution to give $3.5 million to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation's Alaska clean water fund to design and construct a new lined cell: cell 3.

Construction of cell 3 should begin in July and be completed by next winter, Goodale said. Central landfill has plenty of space in cells 2a and 2b to last until cell 3 is complete.

Cell 1 is closed out, however. With a tall chainlink fence encircling the cell, it is now used to store trashed cars.

Central Mat-Su's current site has room for at least 15 cells on 620 acres with room to expand. In his office, housed in a portable building in the shadow of 40-foot high mesa of rubbish, Goodale waves his hand over an aerial photo of the solid waste division's land.

&#8220This is about 100 years of air space,” Goodale said.

Central landfill began in the early 1980s with a single unlined fill cell. Five years later, the landfill added cell two. When it came time to expand, the landfill ran into new state regulations that required cells to be lined. They'd planned another large unlined cell, but had to resize the new construction to afford lining.

Cell lining is made of shingles of thick black plastic, like record vinyl, that is double heat-welded. The plastic is laid over a mat of clay geosynthetic liner. Both rest on several feet of sand permeated with leachate piping. Leachate is the stew of waste water that percolates to the bottom of landfills. The leachate must be trucked to Turpin Road near Anchorage for processing.

Central landfill receives trash from nine pay-to-throw transfer sites and five non-pay sites in remote locations in the

Mat-Su borough.

To help save its air space, the landfill has developed an active recycling program, Goodale said.

The solid waste department estimates the borough could recycle about 14 percent of its total waste, &#8220if you were really to go to a great effort,” Goodale said.

Mat-Su residents recycle only about 7 to 8 percent of their rubbish.

Compared to Mat-Su, Seattle charges twice the price per ton for its refuse. The extra charge goes to fund the city's recycling.

Goodale said Central Mat-Su does not want to charge too much to dump or people will be less likely to use the facility.

&#8220There are a lot of dead-end roads out there” where people might dump, he said.

Car batteries are the most recycled item at central landfill. Almost all disposed lead-acid cells, 176 tons worth, were recycled last year.

The value of lead went up, which made recycling batteries an economic benefit. Goodale said solid waste used to pay $5 to recycle a battery, now it is free.

Recycled newspapers are so lucrative, a truck comes up from Anchorage to cart them away.

Central landfill also finds second life for freezers and refrigerators. After the Freon is pumped out, central landfill trucks the husks to a metal recycler in Anchorage.

To encourage participation, central landfill keeps most of its recycling programs free-of-charge, Goodale said.

Customers can drop off five car batteries every day, five gallons of oil, five gallons of latex paint and five gallons of antifreeze at no cost.

Solid waste also participates in proactive recycling campaigns.

Goodale's team carries on the popular National Guard Bumper Drag. Due to the war in Iraq, few National Guard members are around to run the event, so the landfill fills in.

Last year, central landfill cleared Valley yards of enough cars to salvage 1,000 tons of metal.

Central landfill also works with the Adopt-a-Highway program, processing the hundreds of yellow bags of roadside trash.

&#8220It all comes back to refuse,” Goodale said.

Saturdays, in its hazardous materials facility, the landfill recycles used oil and antifreeze. Antifreeze is almost all recycled back into usable antifreeze, Goodale said.

The landfill also sets aside significant amounts of WD-40, lighter fluid and house paint for visitors to take and use. By June, central landfill plans to open a new $1.5 million hazardous waste facility.

Another place for dump visitors to search for orphaned goodies is in the construction and demolition area. Last year, salvagers removed 70 tons of construction waste.

&#8220Not a huge amount considering we take in over 70,000 tons a year,” Goodale said. But, it is a cheap source for materials for personal building projects, he said.

For more information, interested people can contact Goodale at 746-2841 or ggoodale@matsugov.us.

Contact Russell Stigall at 352-2267 or russell.stigall@frontiersman.com.