ANCHORAGE, Alaska – For an extra $5 a month, Anchorage residents soon will be able to lease a bear-resistant trash container that allows them to store their garbage outdoors without drawing the prying paws of the city’s urban bruins.
Mayor Mark Begich, state biologist Rick Sinnott and Alaska Waste sales manager Craig Gales announced the project this week.
It is part of an ongoing effort to educate the public about how to store garbage safely in Anchorage, where bears frequent several neighborhoods in search of easy meals. It is also about finding ways to discourage the “junkie bears,” said Sinnott, the area wildlife biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
“We’re the primates with the big brains; we can figure this out,” Sinnott said.
The city is also getting the “Don’t trash our bears” message out with a $2,600 advertising campaign displayed on the sides of buses, Begich said.
Living with bears in the back yard is part of life in Anchorage, particularly bear-magnet neighborhoods where homes are at the edge of the woods and bears find food in pet dishes, bird feeders and trash cans.
So far, this summer has been better than previous ones in terms of human and bear encounters, Sinnott said. He’s hopeful this is a sign that people are learning.
It could also be because Alaska Waste has pushed back its pickup times from 6 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. in high-traffic bear areas to encourage residents to put out their trash in the morning, not the night before.
The city wants residents to store their trash in garages or inside homes until collection day. But if you can’t, the $5-a-month bear-resistant garbage cans are a good option, Gales said.
The containers should be available in about two weeks to the 42,000 residential customers of Alaska Waste, which serves nearly all of Anchorage except the downtown area.
The 96-gallon containers are made by BearSaver, a California manufacturer. According to the company’s Web site, the rollout curbside trash cans are battle-tested, designed to keep out even the most tenacious of bruins. They look like any other large tipper-cart, but they have a self-locking lid that bears just can’t figure out, the company says.
The new cans will replace the clumsy, difficult-to-handle retro-fitted bear-resistant containers previously available from Alaska Waste.
Residents may opt to rent the containers for just the summer months when bear problems are worst, Gales said.
The $5 monthly charge looks cheap compared to penalties for leaving out trash that attracts bears. City fines range from $50 to $600; state fines are $110.
“Our goal is not to fine people but to have people contain their waste,” Begich said. He said that if someone should get fined, the city would consider waiving the penalty if the person agrees to install the bear-resistant containers. Sinnott, however, said the state won’t be so lenient.
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