Requirements & Guidelines

Ensuring effective waste management is essential for maintaining the cleanliness and safety of our community. The City of Fairbanks has established specific guidelines to help residents comply with garbage collection requirements. These guidelines aim to provide a safe and efficient service for all city residents. Below are detailed explanations of the compliance requirements:

Protecting Our Community and Environment

We need your help to better protect our residents, environment, staff, and equipment. The City of Fairbanks is asking residents to separate three categories of waste from normal trash bags:

1. Sharps (needles or syringes)
2. Ashes
3. Hazardous household waste

(See City Code Section 66 – Solid Waste for more details.)

Sharps Disposal

City Public Works employees have been accidentally poked by improperly discarded needles, requiring medical treatment and months of testing. To protect both our staff and community, residents must safely dispose of sharps using one of the following methods (effective August 2017):

• Reuse empty household plastic containers (e.g., laundry detergent, bleach, or beverage bottles). Be sure containers are sealed securely and labeled “Sharps.”

• Use a pre-printed “Sharps” label provided by Public Works to attach to household plastic containers.

• Request a labeled, repurposed plastic container from Public Works.

When your container is nearly full, please call Public Works at (907) 459-6770 to schedule a pick-up. You may also place the labeled container next to your trash (not inside trash bags). To protect your privacy, sharps containers can be collected directly from your doorstep upon request. We appreciate your cooperation and assure you that your privacy will be respected.

Ashes

Please place ashes in a separate trash bag labeled “Ashes” next to your regular trash. This helps prevent accidental truck fires — one of which occurred on College Road a few years ago, forcing crews to dump garbage in the street to extinguish the flames. The cleanup disrupted traffic and impacted work productivity. Your help prevents this from happening again.

Hazardous Household Waste

To protect the environment, please separate hazardous materials such as: paint, solvents, cleaning chemicals, motor oil, transmission fluid, brake fluid, antifreeze, pesticides, and petroleum products. Place these items next to your regular trash (preferably in a cardboard box).
Improper disposal can cause serious safety incidents — in June 2017, motor oil in a trash bag caused a hazardous materials spill on city streets, delaying collection and cleanup efforts.

Violation Fees for Improper Disposal

Residents who fail to separate sharps, ashes, and hazardous waste from normal trash will be charged additional fees on their garbage bill:

• Sharps: $200 per violation

• Ashes: $25 per violation

• Hazardous waste: $25 per violation

By working together, we can lower operating costs and protect the health and safety of our employees, residents, and community.

If you have sharps, ashes, or hazardous items for collection, please call ahead so trained staff can be dispatched. Otherwise, there may be a short delay while a special pickup is arranged.

Many of our customers prefer to place their bagged refuse in a bin for weekly collection.

Bins can be an effective deterrent to unleashed dogs and ravens, and if properly constructed and maintained prove to be an asset to both the customer and the collector. 

We understand that everyone's needs are different in terms of capacity and aesthetics.  Please use the following guidelines to construct a bin that will fit your needs and allow us to provide you with a clean and efficient refuse collection service.

Remember, if you choose to construct a bin, it is your responsibility to maintain the bin and the area around it in a sanitary manner including snow removal to allow access to the bin and to open doors.

DO:

• Elevate the bin to a height of 30” (inches) above ground level;
• Construct an adequate size bin.  If you need more capacity, increase the length of your bin.
• Height:  maximum 4’ (feet)
• Depth:  maximum 3’ (feet)
• Length:  to your capacity expectations
• Mount the doors to open horizontally onto the street.
• Make the doors large enough to remove a large bag of refuse.
• Make the doors full height so there are no lips or ledges to snag bags on.
• Provide a screened window in the doors for ventilation.
• If you install a latch on the doors, make sure the latch mechanism is easily workable (collection crews wear heavy gloves during extreme weather).
• Install handles on the doors that a worker can easily grasp while wearing heavy gloves.
• Slope the roof away from the street so that rain and snowmelt will run off the back side of the bin. 
• Drill holes in the floor to let liquids escape. (This is handy when cleaning out your bin).
• Contact Public Works at 459-6770 before you place your bin to determine the best position for you and for us. 

DON'T:  

• Allow any fasteners, nails, screws, screening, chicken wire etc. to be exposed where they will cut and tear your bags.
• Extend an overhang over the front of your bin.
• Exceed a depth of 3’ (feet).
• Allow loose trash or improperly tied bags to accumulate in and around your bin.