By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
More wood, fewer hot tubs and more hazardous waste.
Those were among the trends noticed in the 2021 Spring Cleanup which was “exceptional” this year, city staff members said.
“It was a great success, surpassing even last year’s event in almost every category,” Public Works Director Michael Harmon said Monday by text message.
Kaleb von Scheerschmidt tosses a tire onto a pile at the city scrap yard earlier this month during the citywide cleanup. This year’s event was held April 24 through May 2. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
The spring cleanup is held every year, timed just ahead of the visitor season. This year’s event was April 24 through May 2.
City Administrator John Leach summarized the quantities that were turned in at both the Jarvis Street transfer station and the Sawmill Creek scrapyard and the wastewater treatment plant on Alice Loop.
Some of the statistics shared with the Assembly at the May 11 meeting included:
– 1,065 individual dropoffs, up by 66 from last year.
– 203.8 tons, up from 168.12 last year.
– just under 150,000 pounds in scrap metal.
– 20,000 pounds in white goods (refrigerators and appliances)
– 113 vehicles collected.
– 51 refrigerators.
– 23 cartons filled with hazardous waste turned in at the treatment plant. “The typical average is 8 cartons,” Leach said.
– more than 20 drums filled with hazardous materials, which is three more drums than average.
“They did some great work over there,” Leach said of the hazardous waste collection.
Alaska Waste, the city solid waste and recycling contractor, reported in a letter to city officials that the day with the most tonnage dropped off was April 24 (Saturday), with 37.58 tons; and the busiest day was the final day May 2, when there were 165 dropoffs.
“We had quite a bit of wood come through again this year, but it seemed like we had fewer hot tubs this year,” Adam Minshall, site manager for Alaska Waste, said in his letter.
Leach said the annual cleanup is a free service to the public, but the city pays the contractor to provide the service.
“The contractors still charge us to remove the garbage and to ship it out of here,” Leach told the Assembly last week. “It’s a free service we offer the community to help beautify and to get rid of some of the unwanted waste.”
Harmon in a text message said he wanted to thank a number of people involved in the successful event.
“Public works crews did a great job preparing, making sure the scrapyard was empty and setting up and running the household hazardous waste event,” he said. “Alaska Waste is a fantastic partner every year, willing to go the extra mile to help manage the massive increase in materials. Most importantly, the citizens of Sitka did a lot to clean up waste and recycling and took advantage of this CBS-funded event in an effort to keep Sitka clean and reduce hazardous waste entering the environment.”
Leach said the event overall was “exceptional.”
“A lot of garbage went out of here,” he said. “This is a service we provide for free to keep the community clean - we don’t want cost to be a barrier to getting larger junk out of here.”
