SE communities look for answers to high cost of trash operations

Getting rid of solid waste - trash, in a single word - is expensive in Alaska, particularly in Southeast communities that lack road access to haul and dump garbage in a nearby landfill.

"It's a problem that's never going away," said Tom Wetor, director of Wrangell's Public Works Department and a board member of the Southeast Alaska Solid Waste Authority, or SEASWA.

The collection of nine Southeast municipal governments, in conjunction with the Southeast Conference and a consultant, has been working the past 18 months to compile a report on trash disposal costs and challenges in every community...