Hazardous waste disposal in rural Alaska: it's not as easy as taking out the trash.

• Author: Anderson, Tom
• Position: Environmental Services

Most of us are familiar with how typical garbage disposal works. Whether you have a pick-up service that empties your trash barrels or receptacle or you drive to and empty your refuse at a local landfill, if you're in any of Alaska's regional urban zones, there are plenty of options for trash disposal. Discarding hazardous waste can be more complicated.

In Alaska's larger cities including Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Juneau, and even moderate size communities such as Ketchikan and Kenai, there are multiple options to rid your property of that old refrigerator, dead batteries, or broken computer monitors.

But what about rural Alaska? How do residents and businesses in small, isolated communities discard hazardous waste materials, and what options are available when it comes to related services?

Sustainable Statewide Backhaul Program

Lawmakers, analysts, and community members concur that there is a definite need to address the safe removal of rural hazardous waste. "There is no safe way to dispose of hazardous wastes in the rural Alaskan setting, and backhauling is expensive and logistically difficult for many small communities. A well-coordinated statewide backhaul program will reduce risks to health and the environment, stretch rural Alaska's limited dollar, and protect subsistence resources," reports The Backhaul Alaska Program in 2017. Zender Environmental Health and Research Group is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that provides environmental program services for isolated, rural populations and Alaska Native villages statewide.

The firm is led by Executive Director Dr. Lynn Zender, who specializes in solid waste management and health risks. Deputy Director Simone Sebalo, MS, has a background in engineering and studies solid waste issues on a daily basis. International management firm Booz Allen Hamilton retained the Zender research team to help plan a coordinated statewide system for recycling hazardous waste from rural Alaska communities. The program--called "Backhaul Alaska"--is funded by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Backhaul Alaska's website says, "A pilot program for community electronics, lead acid batteries, and fluorescent light bulbs is targeted for Summer 2018. The program will develop over the next ten years."

The idea for a statewide backhaul program (originally coined as "Adopt-A-Barge") was conceived by US Senator Lisa Murkowski to ensure the backhaul process is affordable.

The Solid Waste Alaska Taskforce (SWAT), which through research and other work is facilitating the launch of Backhaul Alaska, is comprised of several statewide organizations including Kawerak, the State of Alaska's Solid Waste Program, Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, and the aforementioned EPA and Zender.

"When it comes to hazardous waste in remote Alaska, the priority materials for backhaul are lead acid batteries [from vehicles like ATVs and snow machines], fluorescent light bulbs and ballasts, and various electronic waste like discarded TVs, computers, laptops, VCRs, and fax machines," says Sebalo. "Backhauling these materials removes the bulk of mercury and lead from...