Denali Borough staff propose raising landfill fee to $165 a ton

Denali Borough finance staff recommended Wednesday raising the landfill tipping fee 10%, from $150 to $165 per ton. Operating costs are rising 5% a year, and staff projected the current fee would miss the landfill's 50% cost-recovery goal in fiscal 2028. A 5% increase would recover 51%. A 10% increase would recover 53%.

Staff also proposed $330 per ton for waste from outside the borough's solid-waste boundaries and $250 per ton plus a $75 flat fee for non-regulated asbestos-containing material. They proposed new commercial charges for dry vehicles and scrap metal, plus a late penalty on commercial charge accounts. Dry residential vehicles and residential scrap would stay free. Transfer-station fees would hold, since their May 2026 increase has not run a full year.

All three Finance Committee members backed the increase, giving guidance without a vote. Borough code requires an Assembly ordinance and at least six months before a change takes effect, so the new rate would start May 1, 2027. The fee schedule is expected to reach the Assembly around January or February.

The $150 rate took effect April 1, 2024, after a $115-to-$125 increase effective May 1, 2019. The fiscal 2025 budget projected a $450,000 general-fund transfer to cover a solid-waste deficit.

In fiscal 2026 the landfill recovered 63% of costs. Healy Transfer Station recovered 28%, meeting its 25% goal. Cantwell Transfer Station recovered 16%.

"Everything costs more, and it costs more for us to operate the transfer station," committee member Walt Warner said. "We can't subsidize it 100%."

Committee Chair David Alexander questioned higher mattress fees for residents. Staff said only spring mattresses would cost $25 at transfer stations. Foam mattresses would pay the standard $18 volume rate.