If you don’t know where the town of Juneau is, you could be forgiven. Located in Alaska, this city boasted just over 32,000 people in the July 2018 census. Three million pounds of waste may sound like a lot for such a small population—but cruise ship waste is actually less than 5% of the landfill’s yearly waste in both 2018 and 2019. But the waste reports aren’t just about the numbers—it opens up a conversation about landfill management and the cruise ship industry in Alaska as a whole. (1, 2)
Cruise Control
In 2003, then-Governor Frank Murkowski proposed a tax of $5 per person per day on cruise ship passengers that pass through Alaskan waters. “We expect them to make a reasonable contribution. They also have a moral obligation,” was his rationale. The reasonableness of this head tax arises from the fact that cruise ships aren’t required to pay corporate income taxes to the state. Yet, apparently, they can use their landfills.
Rorie Watt, Juneau’s city manager, said in response to the recent dumping stats, “The landfill’s a private operation. The cruise ships are private operations. We don’t regulate waste, garbage, and hauling of garbage. So, anything that we’re able to do will be by negotiation with the cruise lines.” The report goes on to state that Juneau’s landfill has about 20 years of use left. While the landfill may be privately owned, it is the landfill city residents use—and private interests are robbing their space. (2, 3)
Climate Control
The landfill problem is more than just a space issue in Alaska. As climate fluctuates, the permafrost melts—and that causes pollution dangers. Not only can waste now seep into the ground, but garbage has been known to fall into rivers and oceans—and an ocean pollution problem affects more than just Alaskan citizens. When the trash these cruise ships are dumping into Alaskan landfills has a possibility of ending up right back in the ocean, it makes one wonder whether the moral obligation Murkowski spoke of can be extended further. Throwing their own, often quite large pieces, waste in landfills that can’t bear the burden seems barely better from a moral standpoint than throwing it in the ocean to begin with. (4)
Waste Control
In 2016 in Bethel, Alaska, the city put a ban on scavenging—or, in layman’s terms, dumpster diving—in the landfill. Stating concerns about liability issues, they forbid people from visiting this “shopping center” to make use of what they could find.
On the surface, it seems like the only commonality with the situation in Juneau is landfills—but it isn’t so. Anyone who’s seen any educational material on conservation can probably spout off the three ‘R’s of environmentalism: reduce, reuse, recycle. If Alaska’s best efforts to reduce and recycle can be undercut by corporate interests, reusing seems to be all they can do—and now, even that avenue is going away. (5)
What’s Next?
When Juneau runs out of landfill space, they may just need to send their waste down south. But all that really does is put them in a similar position as the cruise ships—dumping their waste on someone else.
