Juneau’s Waste History
Follow Juneau’s Solid Waste Journey
Beginning with the opening of the current landfill in the 1960s, this timeline shows the major events and changes in Juneau’s solid waste history. Hopefully you find this resource valuable in understanding how Juneau got to its current solid waste situation.
Estimates for the Capitol Disposal Landfill, drawn to scale. Select a year to jump to it in the timeline.
Pre-1960s
Several methods of waste disposal are used for the Juneau community, including unregulated ‘dumps,’ barging materials into the channel and jettisoning them, and reuse.
1960s
A site owned and managed by Acme Disposal Inc. operates as Juneau’s main sanitary landfill. There is no formalized solid waste system in the borough. This will become the future Capitol Disposal Landfill.
Federal law
Solid Waste Disposal Act (SWDA) passes
This is the first federal law addressing waste management, and it establishes basic research and technical assistance programs.
1970s
Federal law
Resource Recovery Act
Amends the SWDA and shifts federal focus toward resource recovery and recycling rather than solely disposal.
The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation writes letters to the City & Borough of Juneau (CBJ) regarding solid waste management issues at the Acme Disposal landfill.
CBJ begins work on solid waste management planning.
Federal law
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)
This is the cornerstone federal waste statute. It creates ‘Cradle to Grave’ tracking for hazardous waste (Subtitle C) and a framework for municipal solid waste (Subtitle D).
The Assembly confronts the risk of relying on a single private landfill operator, Acme Disposal, Inc., which threatens to close public access to its landfill unless CBJ buys or leases the business.
The Assembly discusses purchasing the landfill from Acme Disposal, Inc. as well as developing a new site for landfill construction.
- They decline to purchase the landfill after deliberation, preferring to wait for a Comprehensive Solid Waste Plan and further information on the business’s value.
Channel Corporations buys the landfill and renames it Channel Landfill.
Waste Management Consultants, Inc. is retained by Channel Sanitation Co. (part of Channel Corporations) to provide recommendations for a new solid waste system in Juneau. They propose building an incineration system with resource recovery, envisioning plants that could sell heat to the hospital and a school/state office complex.
Channel Disposal Co. indicates to the Assembly that the current landfill is 95% full.
The Southeast Conference Committee requests an Environmental Protection Agency-funded study to look at the feasibility for handling solid waste at a regional level.
- The Assembly endorses a letter of support to the EPA requesting the study, anticipating that Juneau’s high water table and shrinking landfill capacity will soon force a change in approach.
1980s
Federal law
CERCLA (Superfund)
Establishes liability and funding to clean up sites already contaminated by waste disposal, separately from RCRA’s more forward-looking management rules.
Channel Sanitation Co. and CBJ collaborate on an annual clean-up event.
Continuing problems with the annual vehicle/litter clean-up campaign lead staff to begin drafting a genuine solid waste handling ordinance, with a goal of having a draft ready by budget season.
The Assembly funds a full Solid Waste Management Study (Ordinance 83-24, $44,608 to Engineering Science, Inc.) covering disposal, sewage sludge management, and resource recovery options for the CBJ.
The results of the CBJ-funded Solid Waste Study find that there are no ‘good’ landfill sites within the Borough.
Two incinerators are installed at the Channel Disposal Landfill in Lemon Creek.
A $30,000 ordinance to study a possible CBJ purchase of Channel Sanitation’s landfill and collection business draws debate over cost versus urgency; the Manager’s position is that the CBJ is not the right entity to run a landfill absent an overriding public interest.
An Ad Hoc Committee on Hazardous Waste Materials and Hazardous Waste Management is formed (Resolution 1350) to investigate the management of hazardous waste in the borough.
The Ad Hoc Committee’s recommendations are ultimately adopted (Resolution 1442), and include guidance on household hazardous waste, mine waste, medical waste, emergency planning, and education.
The Hospital Board separately coordinates with the Department of Environmental Conservation to explore acquiring its own incinerator for “red bag” (infectious/medical) waste.
Friends of Recycling forms and serves as Juneau’s very first community recycling program.
1990s
Federal law
Clean Air Act Amendments, Section 129
Section 129 directs the EPA to set strict, technology-based limits for solid waste combustion units, covering dioxins and furans, mercury, lead, cadmium, acid gases and particulates. It is a major turning point in the incineration of waste.
Resolution 1433 adopts the Mayor’s Committee on Recycling report as official policy: it commits CBJ to “integrated solid waste management,” directs a fully updated solid waste management plan, and creates the nine-member Citizens Advisory Committee on Waste Management.
Channel Sanitation’s two existing incinerators can’t keep up with Juneau’s waste volume, forcing regular shutdowns for maintenance and increasing landfilling of unincinerated garbage.
- After extensive Manager’s reports and public debate, the Assembly authorizes up to $30,000 for bond counsel to explore financing options (including a CBJ loan guarantee, or “flow control”) for a third incinerator.
Federal law
Subtitle D Municipal Landfill Criteria
The first real technical standards for municipal solid waste landfills, including liners, groundwater monitoring, closure, and post-closure care.
Channel Corporations offers to sell CBJ the landfill.
Ordinance 92-01 (“flow control”) requires that all non-recyclable solid waste be incinerated at the Channel Landfill incinerator for a 15-year term running to 2007. This locks in the Channel Sanitation facility as the community’s disposal path.
Ordinance 92-26 creates a formal Waste Management Utility, funded by a new monthly household fee (initially about $2.80), to pay for a household hazardous waste program; it passes 6-1 after a contentious debate over whether it has bypassed adequate public input.
The Citizens Advisory Committee on Waste Management presents a report on the problem of ‘garbage bears’ to the Assembly.
CBJ funds a landfill siting study. Three possible locations are identified, but CBJ ultimately chooses not to continue with the project.
CBJ decides to build its own Household Hazardous Waste facility. Ordinance 95-11 appropriates funding for a co-located Street Maintenance Warehouse/Hazardous Waste Collection Center.
The Assembly discusses streamlining recycling programs and housing them in a centralized location alongside the Household Hazardous Waste Collection Center.
Channel Corporations sells the landfill to Waste Management, and renames it Capitol Disposal Landfill – the same name it bears today.
The Capitol Disposal Landfill closure study states that the landfill has 108 years of life left with the operation of the on-site incinerators. Landfill life estimate
2000s
Ordinance 2000-11 appropriates $225,000 to launch a CBJ recycling program (contracted to Capitol Disposal) and raises the waste utility fee from $2.80 to $4.00 a month.
Mayor Sally Smith forms an ad hoc Urban Bear Committee, which operates from 2000 to 2001, after five bears are shot in Juneau in a single year.
- CBJ adopts Ordinance 2001-23 on May 21, 2001, followed by Ordinance 2001-37 in July of that year.
- Juneau is among the first communities in the country to pass local laws aimed at keeping bears out of garbage.
Ordinance 2002-04(am-2), adopted March 18, 2002, repeals and reenacts the Urban Bear Ordinance.
- It requires metal lids on certain dumpsters, lets the city manager designate “bear problem areas,” sets the hours during which cans may be at the curb, and authorizes fines when someone’s garbage has attracted bears and they fail to fix the storage.
After 23 bears are shot and killed in Juneau in 2003, the Assembly adopts Ordinance 2004-11 on March 22, 2004.
- The enforcement area expands to include the entire borough, and the ordinance requires metal lids on all dumpsters holding putrescible waste, defines curbside hours, sets fines for bear attraction nuisances, and requires that every garbage can have a lid that stays secure if the can tips.
Waste Management shutters the two incinerators that had been Juneau’s primary solid waste disposal method.
- The unlined landfill becomes the community’s primary disposal path, greatly reducing the expected life left in the landfill.
The Assembly commissions the consultants WIH Resource Group to develop a long-range Solid Waste Management Strategy.
- A central issue identified is that CBJ cannot effectively direct policy because a private company (Arrow Refuse) holds the only available Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity from the Regulatory Commission of Alaska (RCA) controlling waste collection.
Officials in the Committee of the Whole workshops weigh a Materials Recycling Facility (MRF), a universal/mandatory trash collection ordinance, cart-based automated collection, and pursuing the RCA certificate transfer.
- Industry representatives from Waste Management and Arrow Refuse participate directly in the discussions.
Southeast Conference studies a regional landfill; interest is high, but the project is judged infeasible without Juneau committing its waste stream.
WIH Resource Group strategy projects the Capitol Disposal Landfill has 25 to 30 years of life remaining, implying closure around 2033–2038. Landfill life estimate
The Solid Waste Management Strategy is adopted and includes twelve specific recommendations. The CBJ hires its first Solid Waste Coordinator based on one of the top recommendations.
CBJ’s biosolids incinerator fails and is not replaced due to high costs. Biosolids from wastewater treatment are now disposed of in the landfill and constitute an estimated 25% increase in waste entering the landfill.
The Assembly commissions a plasma arc gasification and waste-to-energy feasibility study, which is deemed infeasible by the landfill owner/operator, Waste Management.
2010s
Ordinance 2010-03 (mandatory/universal refuse collection) draws extensive public testimony.
- Many longtime self-haulers object to being forced to pay for collection service they don’t need or want; recycling advocates support it as a necessary first step toward citywide curbside recycling.
- The ordinance allows exemptions for properties where service cannot be practically provided.
- Ultimately, the ordinance does not pass due to public opposition.
The aging sludge incinerator at the wastewater treatment plant remains a financial issue: refurbishment is estimated at roughly $3 million, reigniting debate over whether to repair, replace, or abandon incineration in favor of landfilling or shipping sludge out of town.
Resolution 2518 supports state legislative funding for the newly formed Southeast Alaska Solid Waste Authority (SEASWA), a regional cooperative effort among Southeast communities to jointly address waste disposal.
- Juneau does not become a member community.
The Juneau Climate Action and Implementation Plan adds a goal of cutting emissions from solid waste processing.
- It notes the community generates about 33,000 tons a year, roughly 75% residential and commercial and 25% construction and demolition debris, and that just over 2,000 tons were recycled at the WM center in 2010.
- Composting food and yard waste and shipping less material south are flagged as the main levers.
Private haulers begin curbside recycling pickup, which is the first significant diversion change in years.
New roll carts distributed to residents turn out not to be bear resistant; police stop writing bear-ordinance citations while the CBJ tries to get the word out.
Parks & Recreation starts using surveillance cameras at illegal dumping spots.
The updated Comprehensive Plan includes a waste management chapter directing CBJ to minimize disposal, weigh long-term landfill closure and post-closure costs rather than short-term price, and work with the cruise industry and regional partners.
RecycleWorks produces a Solid Waste Action Plan: it includes branding the program, building out contracts, and adding 24-hour drop boxes for glass, cardboard and paper.
Capitol Disposal files its closure and post-closure financial assurance plan with the state.
CBJ and the Seattle-based Cedar Grove complete a municipal compost feasibility assessment.
A revenue-sharing agreement with WM is meant to incentivize more recycling; even with strong commodity prices, expenses outrun revenue.
- The RecycleWorks manager warns the options ahead are higher fees, smaller programs, or consolidating facilities.
Juneau Composts! is founded, initially as a one-person operation collecting food scraps and yard debris.
China’s import restrictions collapse the recycling commodities market; aluminum and cardboard become the only materials that bring in money.
Ordinance 2018-37 secures a compost lease site at the landfill and, with the following year’s ordinance, sets WM as the recycling contractor there on a 30-year term.
- Waste Management later informs CBJ that composting cannot occur at their site due to space limitations.
- CBJ looks to other properties, including the former gravel pit in Lemon Creek, as alternative locations.
Ordinance 2019-40 repeals the $4 monthly recycling fee effective January 2020.
Juneau Composts! begins leasing CBJ land in Lemon Creek for composting operations.
Cruise ships offload about 3.3 million pounds to the landfill, roughly 5% of the landfill’s annual tonnage.
2020s
Recycling shifts from a fee-funded enterprise to the general fund.
The drop-box program is halted; there was no measurable recycling increase and there was persistent contamination with regular garbage.
The Juneau Commission on Sustainability publishes a solid waste fact sheet in March:
- The landfill is near the end of its useful life, no strategic planning is underway, and the CBJ’s recycling rate has crept only from 4% in 2006 to 6% in 2019 with no diversion targets at all.
- The Commission recommends a formal assessment, a zero waste plan, planning for a CBJ-owned landfill, and pursuing grants.
Juneau’s tipping fee is about $180 a ton, well above national averages.
In September the Assembly signs a memorandum of agreement with Alaska Cruise Association members under which ships will minimize waste offloading and eliminate bulky-waste offloading into the landfill.
In December, Juneau receives $2.5 million in Congressionally Directed Spending, secured through Sen. Murkowski’s office, to design and build a commercial-scale compost facility.
Waste Management announces significant cuts to public access hours at the landfill along with rate increases, which causes public outcry to the Assembly.
CBJ proposes a two-to-five-acre compost facility at the former Lemon Creek gravel pit on Anka Street, estimated at up to $7 million and not operational before 2027.
The August 5 glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) destroys two buildings and condemns six others.
- Capitol Disposal opens for self-haul flood debris from August 9 through August 26, restricted to residents of a dozen named streets.
- Residents are frustrated with these restrictions.
EPA issues a preliminary Finding of No Significant Impact for the Lemon Creek composting project in November.
At a December Assembly meeting the chambers fill with people supporting Juneau Composts!
- The Assembly directs staff to work with Juneau Composts! so the programs complement each other; staff note CBJ intends to contract out operations rather than run the facility itself.
EPA issues the final Finding of No Significant Impact for the compost site in February; the federal money covers site hardening, fencing, stormwater work and utility lines.
CBJ reports that about 250,000 pounds of solid waste came off ships during the 2023 season, a reduction of more than 90% achieved despite record passenger numbers due to the 2022 MOU.
CBJ hires Cascadia Consulting for a waste characterization study. The study finds that 18% of the waste stream is recyclable, 32% compostable and 9% reusable – a total of 59% of materials are divertible with optimized programs.
The 2024 GLOF damages over 100 homes and hundreds of vehicles, creates fuel and hazardous material spills, and uproots trees.
- The response shifts from self-haul to organized collection.
- DOT&PF crews, later joined by the Alaska National Guard, run curbside pickup of waste from flooded homes.
- Worry over the large amount of waste entering an already space-limited landfill leads CBJ to engage Republic Services to send a large portion of the waste to larger landfills in the Lower 48.
The Southeast Alaska Solid Waste Authority (SEASWA), collaborating with Southeast Conference, secures federal grant funding for a three-year regional municipal solid waste planning effort.
- The project maps disposal needs across Southeast, researches practices elsewhere in Alaska and the Lower 48, and aims to produce a regional strategy to guide long-term disposal.
- CBJ is not a SEASWA member (membership requires a public vote), but Juneau and Ketchikan together account for roughly 64% of the region’s population, so the region’s largest waste stream again sits outside the regional effort.
- CBJ staff work with SEASWA to streamline their planning efforts.
In March, the Director of Engineering & Public Works asks the Assembly to authorize a waste disposal facility feasibility study, as Waste Management and CBJ estimate the landfill’s remaining life at about 10–15 years. Landfill life estimate
Jacobs Engineering, the contractor hired for the feasibility study, presents a study that lays out three options: a new landfill, shipping waste south to Washington or Oregon, and a waste-to-energy (WTE) facility.
- Option A — New landfill: build a new CBJ landfill plus a transfer processing facility, with recyclables barged south. Total projected capital cost: $59 million to $182 million, covering the transfer processing facility ($9–20 million) and a 50-year landfill ($50–162 million). (Ranked 2nd.)
- Option B — Ship waste south: build a transfer processing facility with added storage, and barge waste and recyclables south for disposal and recycling. Total projected capital cost: $14 million to $40 million, with offsite shipping and disposal costs negotiated separately. (Ranked 1st.)
- Option C — Waste-to-energy: build a WTE facility plus a transfer processing facility, with noncombustibles, recyclables and ash barged south. Total projected capital cost: $99 million to $110 million, covering the transfer processing facility ($9–20 million) and the WTE facility (about $90 million). (Ranked 3rd.)
- WTE ranks last due in large part to the small size of the waste stream.
- Shipping waste south ranks first in the short term.
- Jacobs informs the Assembly that a well-designed landfill would be the most economical and reliable option in the long term.
- Source: Juneau Solid Waste Disposal Facility Feasibility and Capital Costs Technical Memorandum, Jacobs Engineering Group, March 20, 2025. Costs are high-level 2025 estimates and exclude preconstruction and operating costs.
On June 2, the Assembly Committee of the Whole directs staff to begin the second phase of the study and to include a transfer station, with room to grow, in the planning footprint for the zero waste campus in lower Lemon Creek.
- The campus, planned for the former Lemon Creek gravel pit on Anka Street, is to bring the municipal composting facility together with future recycling, household hazardous waste and reuse operations on one site.
- It follows the Assembly’s 2024 goal of implementing a zero waste or waste reduction plan, including development of the zero waste subdivision, and the EPA environmental review and funding award for the compost facility completed in 2024.
- Source: Assembly Committee of the Whole, June 2, 2025.
Baler failures keep the recycling center shut for weeks; it reopens at limited capacity in February and returns to full hours in mid-March, with CBJ promising closer oversight of maintenance by the contractor, Waste Management.
In March the Assembly takes up a sales-tax ordinance that would exempt residential composting as a diversion measure.
Residents testify about rising downtown bear activity from careless trash disposal.
In March, Jacobs delivers the second phase of the study, estimating what each option would cost to run each year and what it would do to customer rates. Alaska Waste currently pays $194.24 per ton to dispose of waste at the landfill.
- Option A — New landfill: transfer station operations of about $79 per ton (roughly $2.4 million a year), plus landfill operations of $155 to $394 per ton ($4.7 to $11.8 million a year). Operating and capital costs combined run $6.9 to $14.3 million a year, putting disposal at $300 to $544 per ton and raising customer rates 10% to 39%. (Ranked 2nd.)
- Option B — Ship waste south: the same transfer station operations, plus $210 to $283 per ton to barge waste to the Roosevelt Regional Landfill in Washington ($6.3 to $8.5 million a year). Operating and capital costs combined run $8.5 to $11 million a year, putting disposal at $316 to $439 per ton and raising customer rates 12% to 31%. (Ranked 1st.)
- Option C — Waste-to-energy: not evaluated in this phase, as Phase 1 ranked it least feasible. The study notes that disposal through a WTE facility often costs more than twice as much per ton as a landfill or shipping south. (Ranked 3rd.)
- Jacobs names Option B the preferred immediate option, with the lowest upfront cost and the shortest path to being ready when the landfill closes, while noting it leaves CBJ dependent on rates set by barge and disposal contractors.
- Source: Solid Waste Disposal Scenario Operating Costs and Feasibility Technical Report, Jacobs Engineering Group, March 2, 2026. Rate impacts are for 48- and 96-gallon carts collected weekly.
CBJ staff open early talks with the Municipality of Anchorage about sending Juneau’s waste to a waste-to-energy facility that Anchorage hopes to build at its regional landfill. Anchorage expresses strong interest in receiving it, though the discussions remain conceptual.
- Anchorage has moved the project from feasibility into active development, with siting work at the Anchorage Regional Landfill, a planning-level capital cost of about $750 million and air permitting as the critical path. It is not expected to be operating until the early 2030s.
- Barge service is the obstacle. With no direct route between the two cities, containers would travel to Seattle and transfer to a Central Alaska barge, a minimum of 15 days against the 5 to 7 days it takes to reach Seattle, so the route is not financially viable as things stand.
- Sources: Integrated Solid Waste Master Plan Addendum, Municipality of Anchorage Solid Waste Services, May 2026; and the Jacobs Phase 2 technical report.