Mat-Su landfill rolls out new entrance designed to reduce traffic backups

What you need to know:

• The Mat-Su Borough landfill is opening a new entrance and disposal area designed to reduce traffic backups and make it easier for noncommercial customers to drop off waste.
• The upgrades include automated weigh-in and exit lanes, a one-way traffic loop and a new tipping floor for household and construction waste, along with improved access to recycling, hazardous waste and other drop-off areas.
• The $6.5 million project was funded through grants and landfill user fees, not local taxes, officials said. The facility began a soft launch last week, with full operations shifting to the new area and automated lanes scheduled to open the week of Sept. 6. The project sits on landfill property that previously included recreational trails and was cleared for construction in 2024.
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PALMER — Mat-Su Borough landfill visitors will use a new entrance, a faster weigh-in system and a brand-new series of dumping areas starting next week as part of a set of major tech and traffic flow upgrades at the facility.

The new entrance will be used by all noncommercial customers dumping household and yard waste, hazardous materials, metal, tires and construction debris. 

The entrance sits on about 20 acres of landfill property cleared for the project in 2024. The land previously included a section of the borough’s Crevasse-Moraine Trail system that was rerouted to make way for the project. The system connects to the 30-mile Matanuska Greenbelt and winds over landfill property not yet needed for trash cells.

Visitors will access it by driving down 49th State Street toward the facility’s historic entrance and following a new road that wraps about a mile along the landfill’s perimeter, past the recycling center and to the new entrance point.

The project is meant to streamline entry flow and eliminate traffic backups onto 49th State Street. About 80 cars can queue on the new entrance road before causing a line on 49th State Street, said borough Solid Waste Manager Jeff Smith.

No updates are currently planned for the signals or flow of traffic leaving the landfill and traveling onto Palmer-Wasilla Highway, borough public works officials said.

The new entrance includes a staffed scale lane and a new automated check-in lane where users scan a credit card before tallying their initial weight, then rescan the same card to process their total fee when they exit. The current entrance has only a single staffed entrance lane.

The updated drop-off area also improves traffic flow within the landfill. Rather than having entering and exiting traffic crisscross through confusing lanes, travel through the new area follows a one-way loop.

Users will also now toss both household waste and construction and demolition debris onto the same dumping shed, known as a tipping floor. Users who bring trailers or truck beds that use mechanical dumping can also pull straight onto the floor rather than backing up to the dump site, a first for the central landfill, officials said.

The new tipping floor area makes it easier for landfill employees to monitor what goes into the construction area and separate out organic household waste or hazardous materials that shouldn’t be there.

Incorrectly sorted trash can contribute to landfill fires, Smith said. A fire in June was likely triggered by an incorrectly dumped lithium battery, officials said at the time.

Visitors will also pass scrap metal, cardboard and hazardous waste drop-off points before pulling into the tipping floor area, which will help keep those items out of the facility’s disposal cells. Individuals who want to reduce their overall weight going to the gate can also pull into the recycling center to leave materials accepted there, including cardboard, mixed paper, most plastic containers, glass and aluminum cans.

The new entrance and disposal area cost about $6.5 million and were paid for by grants and funds collected from landfill users, Smith said. No local tax income was used for the project, he said. 

The entrance reroute project raised concerns among trail users in 2024 who said the land was clear-cut without warning. In May, the project was linked to an increase in trash blowing across the newly cleared area and into the trail system. Smith said new fencing will help prevent more debris from blowing into the area this coming winter.

Landfill officials said last week they planned to direct customers to the new entrance for two hours each day over the weekend as part of a soft launch before shifting full operations there this week. The automated lanes will open for use the week of Sept. 6, officials said. An official ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday marked the soft opening a few minutes before crews started redirecting users to the area.

Wisconsin residents Matt Sloniker and his wife, Wendy, were surprised to find themselves the first users of the new tipping floor’s household waste section. Sloniker brought a single bag of trash to dump after discovering that their vacation rental home in the area didn’t have an outdoor trash can.

They were in the region celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary and golfing in their 50th state, Sloniker said. They were surprised to find an audience of officials watching Sloniker leave his trash after the just-finished ribbon-cutting ceremony.

“This is the most fun I’ve had in a landfill,” he said.

Wasilla resident Alex Drbenko was the first to use the tipping floor’s new covered pull-in area for mechanical trailer unloading. He dumped a large load of construction debris and said the new system will simplify his future visits.

“Sometimes it was muddy there — this is much easier,” he said.

-- Contact Amy Bushatz at contact@matsusentinel.com