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Kyle Hopkins

Kyle Hopkins writes about Anchorage city government and politics. He covered last year's campaign for governor, and has blogged extensively about Alaska politics for the past year. He grew up in Southeast Alaska and was a reporter at the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and Anchorage Press. E-mail Kyle at khopkins@adn.com

Sean Cockerham

Sean Cockerham writes about Alaska state politics. He spent three years based in Juneau for the Daily News before joining the Tacoma News-Tribune two years ago to write about Washington state politics. He went to Iraq twice for the News Tribune, and previously wrote about Alaska government and politics for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Now he's back in Anchorage. E-mail Sean at scockerham@adn.com

Erika Bolstad

Erika Bolstad covers Alaska issues, including the congressional delegation, from Washington, D.C., for McClatchy Newspapers. Before joining the bureau this summer, she spent seven years as a reporter at the Miami Herald, where she covered politics, government and the state legislature. E-mail Erika at ebolstad@adn.com.

Archive

Stevens and Murkowski on ANWR....again - 5/16/2008 4:22 pm

Young's challengers - 5/16/2008 2:15 pm

Green reaction to Palin - 5/16/2008 10:40 am

Polls - 5/16/2008 9:43 am

Fuel costs & Fairbanks - 5/15/2008 6:06 pm

Palin pitches $1.2B program to help offset energy costs - 5/15/2008 1:22 pm

Palin energy plan: Grants to utilities and energy debit cards. - 5/15/2008 1:08 pm

AGIA special session - 5/15/2008 12:29 pm

A snowmaking gun with your name on it - 5/14/2008 7:05 pm

Mt. McKinley: Pride of the Rockies - 5/14/2008 6:29 pm

Put it on the governor's tab - 5/14/2008 3:50 pm

Congressional delegation: Not happy - 5/14/2008 3:48 pm

Young legal defense fund: "No activity." - 5/14/2008 3:07 pm

Alaska Newsreader special edition -- the polar bear decision - 5/14/2008 2:59 pm

Marketing the mayor - 5/13/2008 6:02 pm

Browne withdraws - 5/13/2008 12:33 pm

Larry Bird vs. Georgianna Lincoln - 5/13/2008 11:39 am

An Alaskan VP? - 5/13/2008 7:48 am

ANWR vote...sort of - 5/13/2008 6:57 am

Palin to call special session - 5/12/2008 6:06 pm

Campaign season - 5/12/2008 5:32 pm

Gara's fundraising - 5/12/2008 5:10 pm

full archive »

Tonight

Posted by Alaska_Politics

Posted: May 6, 2008 - 4:29 pm

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

SaraEllen Hutchison, with the Alaska Center for the Environment, stood Downtown this afternoon handing out fliers encouraging people to go to tonight's Assembly meeting. Assemblyman Matt Claman's daughter - a member of her high school's "green team" - got a call about the meeting too.

Looks like Anchorage recycling supporters plan to be at the Loussac in force.

They'll look to persuade the Assembly to pass a couple of the various recycling and garbage rates proposals on the agenda.

Right now, there are two key proposals:

-- The first sets pay-as-you-throw garbage rates for the first batch of Solid Waste Services customers who will get curbside recycling service. Basically, these customers would pay more if they throw out more trash, and save more if they recycle.

SWS is the city-owned garbage company. It's customers live in the core of Anchorage.

Assemblywomen Debbie Ossiander and Sheila Selkregg said the Assembly generally seems to support this proposal, which would kick off curbside recycling for SWS in the fall.

-- The Assembly could take more convincing on another proposal, which would raise tipping fees at the landfill and transfer station by $8 a ton in order to pay for citywide recycling efforts. (The city raised tipping fees earlier this year for a different reason: To operating the city-owned garbage utility, particularly saving money for closing the landfill when it's full.)

This proposal would pay for new recycling drop-off locations on Huffman and Muldoon roads, and recycling in schools and public education, Hutchison said.

"It's an $8 increase. That will work out to about $1 or $2 per month, per household if you live outside of Solid Waste Services area," she said.

For those SWS customers who won't be among the first to get curbside recycling, this proposal would raise their monthly rate from $16.35 to $18 a month.

Ossiander said she still has lots of questions about how the money would be used, such as how the city will get the land for the new drop off centers.

"Apparently, they're hoping that people will donate this property," she said.

Ossiander said she doesn't know if the mayor has enough votes for this part of the recycling plan. "He doesn't have mine."

Selkregg said she wants to get on with the recycling programs, but that "We need to make sure that we're all comfortable with what they are and how we're paying for them."

Claman said we may see the proposal postponed tonight.


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  2     May 7, 2008 - 7:51am | akmooster

did the mayor speak to this....

or is he too busy out there being all about himself? He should resign if he isn't going to do anything but campaign on our nickel.
Another point, doesn't clay-man have a conflict here? His daughter is on the green team in her school, how can he vote with clear judgment?

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  May 7, 2008 - 8:15am | I_am_Spartacus

Claman

Well, since Claman voted to kill the heart of the proposal, his biggest worry is hoping that his daughter doesn't figure out what he did.

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  May 9, 2008 - 10:45pm | akmooster

if clay-man voted against it...

then the mayor told him to. My guess is to watch what follows to see why. The rubber stampers didn't vote this down without mark's okay.

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  1     May 6, 2008 - 11:47pm | I_am_Spartacus

Loss

It was a serious loss for recycling advocates at the Assembly tonight. They got a small victory in the approval of Solid Waste Services curbside pilot program. But after most of the public had left for the night, thinking they had won a big victory, conservatives on the Assembly with the help of Patrick Flynn and Matt Claman managed to kill off the meat of the proposal including new collection sights and a partnership with the Anchorage School District.

Recycling fans: you got thrown in the trash tonight by Flynn and Claman.

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  May 7, 2008 - 7:43am | tommcgrath

Fairness

It is about fairness. We just had a 15% increase in garbage rates. With all costs going up we shouldn't have to shoulder another similiar increase. It has taken 10 years since the first recycling summit to get this far. Throwing money at the issue will not solve the issue. The recycling advocates, if they were serious, would organise and go door to door and teach recycling and composting to those interested. I haven't bought potting soil or soil for my flower beds in years. I use my own product from my compost piles. Consequently I also don't have to buy any chemicals or fertilizer.
They talk, but when it is time to do, they want the Anchorage assembly to mandate with huge cost to all of us. Mandates don't work near as well as hard work.
Cardboard is also one of the biggest fillers of landfills. Most businesses in Anchorage do not recycle cardboard but here again it is about education. I have cardboard bins at my buildings and consequently save a lot of dumping fees. I learned of this opportunity and took advantage of it but most business people are not aware of the economics of this simple process. There again, education, rather that another law and fee increase from Mount Assembly would get us a lot farther down the right path.

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  May 7, 2008 - 2:23pm | TheSdog

TM

It is classic liberalism.

If they want all of these things done, they should raise the money and put the time in and do it. Certainly, most of us would participate on a voluntary basis. If they put a huge recyclable bin outside my office building, I would use it.

The remarkable thing to me watching testimony last night was the few people who benefit from the recycled goods did not seem willing to put in extra time or money themselves. They wanted the trash consumers to pay the extra to get the recyclables to them. That is unacceptable.

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  May 7, 2008 - 9:42pm | zippy_pinhead

interesting angle

This is an interesting point, isn't it. Why no initiative from the recycling center and others.

I wonder if the business is on such small margin that gearing up for large-scale transport is just out of the question?

If the city thinks they'll have some benefit by extending the life of the landfill, I'd think some amount of investment in diversion would make sense. Granted, curbside pickup seems to be an awfully gold-plated solution to me, but expanded dropoffs to encourage voluntary diversion (like your bin at the office example) seem to be a worthwhile investment.

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  May 7, 2008 - 2:31pm | rfn

Unacceptable?

It's the mindset the voters of Seattle-North voted for. At least those who cared enough to vote.

OK, folks, you wanted it; you got it. Now pay for it.

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  May 7, 2008 - 8:18am | I_am_Spartacus

Fair?

An increase in the tipping fee would have been perfectly fair. If you use less, you pay less. That's the way it works for nearly everything. If I use more electricity than you, I pay more. If I burn more gas than you, I pay more. If I dump more waste in the landfill than you, I should pay more.

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  May 7, 2008 - 8:27am | tommcgrath

For other than intended purpose

The tipping fee should pay for garbage. Most recycling, as it currecntly exists in Anchorage (not necessarily other places) is a social program that should be paid for by the people that want to participate.

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