Unalaska accepts $3.8 million EPA grant to clear junk cars and scrap metal from its full landfill

Unalaska's landfill ran out of room for scrap metal and dead cars before federal help arrived. Now the city has $3.8 million to deal with them.

The City Council on Tuesday accepted the Environmental Protection Agency recycling grant and approved spending it. The grant requires no local match. Unalaska has no road connection to the rest of Alaska, so old cars and scrap metal that leave the island have to go by ship.

The grant will pay for a machine that crushes old cars into compact bales, a new scale to weigh loads at the landfill, towing and shipping abandoned cars to Seattle and a public education campaign on recycling and getting rid of hazardous materials.

The city started on the problem well before the grant came through. In January 2025, it pooled nearly $500,000 from crab disaster relief money and a court judgment to launch a recycling and vehicle disposal project. That November, the council approved an $800,000 contract with OC Environmental Services to haul off about 1,200 tons of scrap metal and 250 derelict vehicles.

By January 2026, city records showed the landfill was full for metal and vehicles. A fully loaded barge left the landfill in late June, the same month the EPA issued the grant.

Acting City Manager Marjorie Veeder wrote that the grant lets the city build on that first round of work toward "a more sustainable, long-term approach to recycling and abandoned vehicle disposal."