Solid Waste Solutions in Rural Alaska::
Additional Success Stories from Rural Alaska:

Native Village of Tununak

Contact:
   David Hooper
   907/652-6529
   tnkigap@yahoo.com

Like other villages, with no heavy equipment and wetland tundra, Tununak had a dump that had poor access for residents and where users had to choose to walk and drive over wastes to access the center, or expand it. By saving their monies to rent heavy equipment and pay two operators, they were able to cover approximately 7 acres of open dump in just two weeks and create a trench-fill system, whereby residents can drop their wastes in, and no longer have direct contact with wastes when using their dump. While a full closure is beyond available funding, Elders are very happy with the result. Tununak recently started their recycling program and has backhauled 928lbs by taking the extra time to provide the children individual checks from the 20cents/lb they receive for the cans they pick up. Already, children are starting to pick up cans from the ground - a first reported by staff and a big step in educating their community about separating wastes and benefits of recycling. They also closed out their honeybucket bunkers that were leaking onto the boardwalk and were unable to be pumped out due to high operation and maintenance and they built locally 2 large underground bunkers. They were able to stop people from having to resort to dumping their wastes on the beach.