Mat-Su to offer coupon for $25 off trash dumping

PALMER — A trash dumping coupon sent annually to Matanuska-Susitna Borough property owners will more than triple in value this year even as some landfill fees are slated for a slight increase starting in July.

Until last year, residential borough property owners every spring received a coupon good for $8 off at the Central Landfill or transfer stations over a three-month period. Now a revamped program approved Tuesday by the Mat-Su Assembly will give those residents a $25 coupon valid for a full year.

The change comes on the heels of two weeks of free residential trash dumping at the Mat-Su landfill and transfer stations in September, which exceeded cost estimates by more than double.

No free trash days have been approved for 2024.

The new trash coupons will likely be sent to borough residential property holders over the summer in conjunction with property tax bills, borough officials said during the Tuesday assembly meeting.

Meanwhile, some central landfill fees are set to increase in July under a sweeping series of fiscal 2025 price changes also approved Tuesday; dumping residential scrap metal, including appliances like washers and dryers, will be newly free.

Under the change, the landfill’s minimum-use fee and per-bag fee — which were both lowered in July 2021 to $10 and $2, respectively — will increase to early 2021 rates of $15 and $3. Commercial and residential per-ton disposal rates, which were last raised in 2021, will also increase by $5 to $147.

Officials with the landfill said the upcoming July increases are not tied to the cost of the free dump days and were instead prompted by increases to business costs such as fuel and construction.

“These aren’t related at all, this is just based on general budget,” said Jeff Smith, who manages the borough’s solid waste division.

The assembly also approved other fee increases Tuesday. Those increases include an up to $60 bump in hourly rental rates for the Brett Memorial Ice Arena in Wasilla, a change that will primarily affect hockey team practice costs; increases to borough swim lesson and open swim fees at the Wasilla and Palmer high school pools; and an increase of $10 per night for individual campsites at the borough’s Jim Creek and Matanuska River Park campgrounds.