Recycling in Juneau just got easier

Juneau’s recycling center is only open Thursday through Saturday, which isn’t the most convenient.

“I don’t know if you’ve ever put recycling in your car and said, ‘OK, I’m going to go there Friday or Saturday,’ and never get there. Now you’re driving around with recycling in the back of your car,” City and Borough of Juneau solid waste coordinator Jim Penor said on the phone Tuesday, laughing.

Now, with four new recycling drop boxes around town, you won’t have to delay the chore. Two are located behind The Alaska Club on Riverside Drive, one at Statter Harbor in Auke Bay and one at Aurora Harbor near downtown Juneau.

Penor said the drop boxes are part of a CBJ pilot program to increase recycling. Each container cost $11,500.

“Drop boxes are there 24/7. It’s excellent having these drop boxes out in areas that people travel and frequent daily,” Penor said.

All four drop boxes will accept aluminum, #1 and #2 plastics and cardboard. The Alaska Club location also accepts glass and mixed paper.

“Juneau citizens do a good job, but I still want to stress — let’s keep the materials separated, let’s get it in the right bins. The cleaner the material is, the more money we get paid on the product, which helps offset our total cost for the program,” Penor said.

Recycling in Juneau isn’t profitable. Penor’s annual budget is about $215,000 and he said he can make up to $50,000 back in selling the recycling.

“Almost everything gets shipped out to brokers and it’s basically a worldwide market. Wherever we can get the best prices is where it goes. I work with brokers out of Seattle area and it can end up going to China, Vietnam,” he said.

The market for recycled commodities is “real volatile,” Penor said.

“It’s strange what can affect the markets — politics, barging, fuel prices affect it. Through 2014 and 2015, I was getting $40 a ton for cardboard. Right now I’m getting $95 a ton for cardboard. How long that stays, I don’t know,” he said.

For plastics #1 and #2, Penor recently got $110 a ton. Glass never gets barged out due to shipping costs and low markets for it. It gets crushed and the landfill uses it for road base, Penor said.

Annually, Juneau barges out between 1,900 and 2,200 tons of recycling a year. Penor hopes the drop box program grows to 15 containers. He said his ultimate goal is to expand enough that Juneau is shipping out 5,000 tons of recycling a year.

“It’s an excellent thing for Juneau to be doing. It diverts waste from our only permitted landfill. We only have one landfill and the volume in that landfill is precious because once that landfill gets full, I don’t believe we’re in the position to open up another,” Penor said. “So, let’s keep this landfill, let’s keep space available, let’s protect the environment and pull our recycling out what we can.”

• Contact reporter Lisa Phu at 523-2246 or lisa.phu@juneauempire.com.