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Paper and cardboard recycling will continue in Juneau with no extra fees - for now.

The Juneau Assembly's Committee of the Whole decided Monday to keep the recycling program going as is for a year after City Manager Rod Swope and Waste Management District Manager Eric Vance briefed the Juneau Assembly's Committee of the Whole with updated revenue projections that point to a less dire financial situation than previously suggested.

Swope had floated a possible suspension of paper and cardboard recycling or a $1 increase to a $4 monthly waste fee during an Assembly meeting last week. Since commodities prices crashed in the fall, Waste Management, which runs the landfill and recycling drop-off center in the Lemon Creek area, has been stockpiling bales of various recyclables in hopes that prices would rebound.

Mixed paper and cardboard make up more than three quarters of the recyclables usually shipped south. Unlike aluminum or plastic, they need to stay dry to be marketable. Alaska Marine Lines loaned Waste Management some shipping containers for storage, but wanted them back in March. To date, 14 containers have been filled.

"So, we're getting to a decision," Swope said Monday.

Last week, Vance had estimated the price of keeping paper and cardboard recycling going at near the full cost of shipping, about $70 a ton or $8,000 a month, based on November commodities prices. At that time, the per ton value of mixed paper, newsprint, cardboard and plastics had all hit zero or near zero.

February commodities prices have rebounded some, and a 12-month projection presented Monday based on those figures showed a more modest loss of $21,400 for the year, though Vance cautioned that "Everything is kind of variable with these commodities."

When prices are higher, the city and Waste Management share the revenue in excess of shipping costs 50-50, though the city bears the entire cost of shortfalls.

Swope said the city can absorb the cost of the recycling program with a $300,000 reserve fund intended for the hazardous household waste program, junk car disposal program and major repairs for a baler machine used in the recycling program.

"It gives us some time. We can afford it for a little while," Swope said.

The committee unanimously backed the recommendation and a request from Mayor Bruce Botelho for quarterly status updates.

Juneau's voluntary drop-off recycling program began after Waste Management's incinerators shut down in 2004 due to cost, age and tightening environmental regulations. Before they were shut down, the landfill had an estimated 75 years left before hitting capacity. Now, it's estimated to have only 25 to 30 years left.

Assemblyman Randy Wanamaker said the bigger issue to be addressed is the landfill. He made a motion to have the city staff solicit a proposal for a feasibility study of a plasma incinerator, though it failed in a 7-1 vote. Botelho said Wanamaker's proposal would be "premature."

"We need a refresher of what we've already paid consultants to look for" before considering specific alternatives, Botelho said, offering a substitute motion to revisit a 2007 solid waste report.

Wanamaker said the study's authors were not experts on plasma.

Plasma technology of this type is nascent in municipal waste disposal in the United States, but similar to decades old plasma technology used primarily in industrial settings. A handful of companies in recent years have begun offering zero-emission machines that use plasma to molecularly disassemble solid waste with beneficial byproducts: electricity, a synthetic fuel and an inert slag that can be used as fill or sold on commodities markets. Few plasma plants of this type exist in the world.

• Contact reporter Jeremy Hsieh at 523-2258 or e-mail jeremy.hsieh@juneauempire.com.