"recycling"

Over the years, several Curious Juneau listeners have asked where Juneau’s recycling goes. A few even wonder if it’s really getting reused, or if some of it ends up in a landfill.

A Tlingit tribe in the Southeast community of Wrangell — the Wrangell Cooperative Association — has been working to recycle electronics to reduce e-waste. That helps keep potentially toxic materials from becoming hazardous waste on the island.

China’s restrictions on importing mixed paper and some plastics is affecting recycling worldwide. But in Southeast Alaska, most communities continue to accept those materials.

Eight Southeast Alaska communities will resume scrap metal recycling as early as this April. The Southeast Alaska Regional Solid Waste Authority is working with Waste Management, a large garbage removal and recycling business. The authority includes Petersburg, Wrangell, Craig, Klawock, Thorne Bay, Kasaan, Hydaburg and Coffman Cove. Petersburg Public Works Director Karl Hagerman said old…

China is limiting the type and quality of recyclable materials it will import. That could affect Alaska, since most of our recycling ends up there.

Juneau’s city-run RecycleWorks program is looking to consolidate its operations on a single site and add a composting operation. The complex deal would involve selling city land to the Alaskan Brewery Company and hiking utility rates.