Borough public works officials presented different options for Fairbanks area recycling last Wednesday at the Wood Center.
Scott Johnson, director of public works, said the easiest recycling program to implement would involve commingled collection and sorting by borough employees. But several panelists said residents should do some sorting too.
"I don't think do nothing is an option," Johnson said. "Otherwise, I wouldn't be here."
The panel was part of a weeklong conference sponsored by the Sustainable Campus Task Force. About 25 people attended the discussion.
The Fairbanks North Star Borough already spends about $500,000 annually on recycling, Johnson said. Expanding recycling could cost up to $250,000 more, excluding capital costs.
"Recycling in Fairbanks is not a money maker," Johnson said.
The borough assembly will likely vote on a recycling plan later this summer, Johnson said.
"In the next couple months, we're going to go back to them with some real proposals on not exactly what you're going to see here," Johnson said. "It's no doubt going to be a hybrid of all of them."
Under a commingled collection program, the borough would support 14 unmanned transfer sites that would collect unsorted recyclables.
The borough expects commingled collection to bring-in about 5,605 tons of recyclables, more than under the other options. But commingled collection would also have the highest costs involved, as recyclables would be separated by borough employees.
Commingled, however, would allow for continued curbside pick-up at UAF and Eielson Air Force Base, something the other plans do not make available because of truck collection time, Johnson said.
"If we're going to expand it, we need to be all-inclusive in our community or we're not really going to grow," he said.
Other options presented propose having residents separate recyclables into bins.
The most feasible source-separated collection system involves separating paper, plastics and aluminum into seven separate bins that could be dropped-off at transfer sites. Three mobile recycling centers would collect bins once a week also.
It's the cheapest option, but also would likely have the least participation, said Randy Johnson, deputy director of Public Works.
Members of the panel agreed commingled seemed like the most feasible, but some wondered if it could be combined with some form of source-separated recycling.
Eielson already has source-separated recycling, but materials are sorted into only three categories, paper, glass and aluminum, said Lt. Col. Alan Wieder, mission support group deputy commander at Eielson.
Ed Foster, head of UAF Facility Services, said the university could implement commingled recycling easier than source-separated. But the campus could probably adapt to a combination, he said.
"We currently are shipping about 1,500 tons to the landfill every year," Foster said. "I'd be thrilled to cut that in half."
Pam Seiser, president of Interior Green Star, said combining the two options wouldn't be so hard.
"That wouldn't be too much to ask people to separate things," she said.
Eli Sonafrank, ASUAF recycling assistant, agreed.
"For ASUAF to most feasibly collect recycling materials on campus, generally the commingled option would be the easiest to implement," Sonafrank said, but added that separating the recyclables would work well with UAF's current system.
Commingled would allow more people to participate, said Nancy Fresco of the Northern Alaska Environmental Center.
"It also includes a larger percent of the population," she said. "And I'd hate to see any segment of the population, whether they be on a military base or at the university or wherever, feeling frustrated that a program existed at the borough but they couldn't participate."
