The Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly on Tuesday approved a congressionally designated spending request to U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski for a redesign of the Central Peninsula Landfill’s solid waste handling and recycling facility and program.
The move comes nearly two months after a large baler that was used for recycling at the landfill was left inoperable by a catastrophic failure in its main ram. Borough Mayor Peter Micciche has said that the borough is using this opportunity to reconsider all of the borough’s recycling efforts — that some previous borough recycling projects may have been missing the mark.
In the meantime, Central Peninsula Landfill is still collecting glass and aluminum cans for recycling, while no longer accepting for recycling cardboard, plastic, paper and tin. The transfer stations in Homer and Seward are still accepting all recycling materials.
A memo by Borough Grants Administrator Elizabeth Hardie and Borough Purchasing and Contracting Director John Hedges, attached to the resolution adopted by the assembly, says that the request for funding for the design work will be the borough’s only federal legislative priority request for the coming fiscal year. The redesign would be intended to include demolition of the old baler, modifications to the landfill facility for a new baler, and purchase of both the new baler and a tire shredder.
Micciche has repeatedly in recent months cited tires as a material he’d like to see kept from the landfill. Speaking to the Clarion in January, he said that the borough buries 10,000 tires a year in the landfill, that a shredder could allow them to be converted into a usable material like playground padding.
He repeated that call during a meeting of the assembly’s finance committee on Tuesday.
“Filling it with 10,000 tires a year is not only wasteful, it’s inefficient, and proves that we need to do a better job putting some forethought in what this place is going to look like — not only for us, but for our kids and grandkids,” he said.
Even if the borough doesn’t receive federal funding for the recycling project, Micciche said the borough would evaluate its options and get something done.
The resolution approving the request was passed by the assembly on their consent agenda via unanimous consent with little discussion during that evening’s meeting.
Micciche said after the resolution was adopted that the borough would continue to recycle and that it would do a better job of recycling when the project was complete.
A full recording of the finance committee meeting and the assembly meeting can be found at kpb.legistar.com.
Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.
