100 Percent Dump Increase Beleaguers Local Residents

The Girdwood Transfer Station is one of three Municipal facilities that have doubled the fee for disposal of up to four bags. (Photo by Soren Wuerth)

By Soren Wuerth

TNews Editor

A new rate increase that doubles the cost of trash disposal at municipal transfer facilities has some local residents storing their garbage and others laying a course to fight the fee.

Paying $10 to throw out a single bag of garbage is a high cost for a single person living paycheck to paycheck, said a municipal employee who declined to be identified. 

"There are elderly people stockpiling stinky trash in their house because they don't have a shed," the source said. 

The price to throw out one-to-four bags shot up from $5 to $10, a 100% increase. A load of a cubic yard or less went from $10 to $15 and a truck load climbed from $20 to $27.

Only a small part of the increase, 5 percent, pays for "rising operating costs" of Solid Waste Service, according to a flyer from the self-funded utility.

The bulk of the extra cost is a $4 surcharge to fund a "Healthy Spaces" crew of workers tasked with cleaning parks and other public spaces in the municipality. 

The measure, championed by Anchorage Assembly Member Chris Constant, passed the Assembly in September and took effect in January. At a press conference two weeks ago Mayor Suzanne LaFrance said the Healthy Spaces program added 10 year-round positions.

"Some folks were surprised, some not happy, [but] most agree Anchorage needs a mechanism for cleaning up the city," Kelli Toth, the director of SWS said in an email. "Most of our Customer Service team members report, regarding the Healthy Spaces surcharge, that at first there were a few unhappy people, however overall, most people like the idea of cleaning up the MOA without applying taxes toward funding the operation."

The program hopes to take in $1.5 million annually. So far, the surcharge has reaped a little more than $216,000, wrote Toth. Girdwood's transfer station took in about 1,000 tons of waste last year and averaged 36 customers a day, Toth said.

Whether any funding, and how much, will be used to clean local parks is unknown. The Healthy Spaces program includes Girdwood as a service area, but the fee "is a ridiculous externality and is inversely proportional to the service we have actually received," said Brice Wilbanks, co-chair of Girdwood's Land Use Committee.

Wilbanks wrote a resolution, passed by Girdwood's Board of Supervisors, to revert the fee at the local transfer station back to $5. The next step will be to revise municipal code, he said. 

"It definitely will not be the last time Anchorage takes from Girdwood to spend on themselves," wrote Brett Wilbanks on Facebook. 

Most Girdwood residents opt for private collection. Alaska Waste charges $103 every three months to service a 64-gallon bear resistant trash can.

Residents who are storing garbage to save on the $10 disposal fee risk intrusion and habituation by bears, a storied problem in Girdwood.

"[Ten dollars] for one bag is outrageous," wrote Kelby Dillon on Girdwood's Facebook page. "It just makes the trash problem worse. People will now be hoarding garbage in their garages and pickup beds and the bears will be out soon."