Residential Waste Weight Limit Stays at 500 Pounds a Day

Kayla Desroches/KMXT

Trash is a big topic in Kodiak, where shipping it off-island can be expensive. Sometimes it never leaves at all, like the cars some people abandon on the side of the road. Residential waste came up at the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly regular meeting Thursday night in the context of establishing the borough’s fee schedule.

Assemblyman Larry LeDoux noted that borough staff recommended the assembly reduce the weight of residential waste one can dispose of daily at the landfill from 500 pounds to 250 pounds. Mayor Jerrol Friend said, according to staff, the additional 250 pounds per day is costing the landfill general fund about $125,000 per year.

LeDoux said that the decrease in weight of residential waste, which includes construction debris, troubles him. He said he wonders if they are creating a problem.

“So, when we raise the fee if you will, which is sort of what we’re doing even though – ‘cause we’re decreasing the amount you can throw away, and I understand that has an effect. But, have we considered the fact that people are just going to throw this stuff either in a dumpster, which means it’s going to go to the dump anyway, it’s just going to fill the dumpsters faster than they’re currently filled up, or they’re just going to throw it on the side of the road.”

Assemblyman Dan Rohrer asked about the number of people who drop off residential waste at the landfill, and Engineering and Facilities Director Bob Tucker said that it was roughly seven a day, but he was unsure how close those people’s trash made it to the weight limit.

He also added that, previously, the limit had been 500 pounds a week.

“I think all we’re really doing is doing a correction to the market going to 250 pounds a day, so going from 500 pounds a week to 500 pounds a day really helped with the stuff going over the bluff and that type of thing. I’m really not sure that backing off half of that is gonna to make that much of an impact of stuff going over the bluff.”

Assemblywoman Rebecca Skinner said she thinks the borough should stick to 500 pounds a day.

“Given that we are going into putting our solid waste contract out for bid, I am also thinking in terms of implementing big changes now that could change what we should expect or what a new contractor would expect, and I do think seven people a day is significant enough.”

Tucker clarified that the issue has nothing to do with the solid waste contract because residents deliver their trash to the landfill themselves. However, Rohrer pointed out that there is an indirect link.

“What we’re presuming is that some people will choose to go dump their construction debris in a dumpster and that’s the big unknown, so obviously that would also have an impact, and that also means that it’s not really $125,000 potentially, because unfortunately human nature being what it is, they’re not all gonna to go pay, they’re just gonna to find another way to dispose of it.”

The assembly moved to keep the limit at 500 pounds of residential waste a day, which excludes metals.