A sample of projects the parks have implemented to reach their zero landfill goals

Links to highlighted projects

Denali Zero Landfill Board of Directors  

When Denali National Park joined the National Parks Zero Landfill Initiative, it brought the entire community along. Park leadership quickly realized that they needed broad stakeholder engagement to ensure success. As it tackles its own waste reduction challenges, the park is working with nearby communities to increase efficiency and take on recycling as a region. A four-hour drive from the nearest full-scale materials recycling facility (MRF) and hosting a seasonal crush of hundreds of thousands of visitors, Denali and its neighbors have a lot of incentive to work together to keep waste out of the landfill.

The Zero Landfill Project Board of Directors (BOD) is a diverse collaborative forum of community leaders representing government, private businesses, non-profits, school districts and waste management companies. Co-chaired by the park superintendent and Denali Borough mayor (operators of the park’s closest landfill), the BOD meets monthly by phone to share information and coordinate park and gateway projects aimed at waste reduction, recycling, education, and media/community outreach.

COMPOSTING

Creativity Key to Composting

The ZLI leads for both the park service and concessioner operations have dedicated extensive resources to identify the most cost-effective food waste diversion efforts given their short 100- day operating season and extreme seasonal temperatures. 

In 2017, the national park service opted to utilize Earth Cubes and larger Tumbler composters manufactured by Green Mountain Technologies. The units can process from 50-120 pounds a day of food scraps, paper products and yard waste, which made this equipment ideal for applications in year-round and seasonal employee housing locations.

The concessionaire Doyon Joint Venture/Aramark explored options from biodigesters for kitchens food waste to larger composting units such as the Green Mountain Intermodal Earth Flow.  In light of the short operating season and the annual “mothballing” of operations in late September, the concessionaire needed a simpler and more cost-effective option.

In partnership with Susitna Organics, the concessionaire began food waste dumpster service in 2017 after working closely with the NPS to ensure the collection unit was “wildlife resistant.” In the first year, the concessionaire was able to compost 3 tons of food and paper waste. With an earlier start in 2018 they saw twice the amount collected and by 2019 they tripled collection to 9.5 tons. Combined with the Aramark corporate LeanPathTM food waste reduction initiative, the Denali concessioner team continues to develop a dynamic food waste diversion program.

RECYCLING

How a Park Got a Whole Region into Recycling

Four hours. That’s how long it takes to haul some of Denali’s recyclables to the nearest facility that will take them, Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) – Valley Community Recycling Solutions. It’s costly and it’s time consuming.

To maximize the efficiency of collecting, sorting, storing and transporting recyclable materials, the park and its gateway communities turned to regional partnerships. Along the way, those partnerships wound up using the ZLI process to improve recycling infrastructure throughout the region.

Such powerful partnerships didn’t just happen on their own. They grew out of Denali’s ZLI board of directors. The board members used their connections to forge relationships within the park and in neighboring boroughs and school districts.

Working together, the park and its partners have brought recycling to places where it never existed before.

• NEW ONSITE RECYCLING CENTER

Park concessionaire Doyon/Aramark Joint Venture (JV) constructed the center to process recyclables for the JV and the NPS during the operating season. The construction project was included in the terms of JV’s concession contract, but the ZLI heightened collaboration and expanded the infrastructure, and that increased the types of materials collected for recycling. Interpretive signage highlights diversion goals and successes.

• NEW WASTE TRANSFER STATION

Denali Borough constructed the transfer station in a neighboring community. Partners are now considering how it can facilitate the collection of recyclables.

• UPGRADED & EXPANDED ONSITE COLLECTION CENTER

The NPS operates the “Over and Over”, a recycling collection facility in the park where employees can drop off sorted recyclables from their homes and offices.

• NEW INFORMATION SHARING

The park and its neighbors are sharing information on equipment, systems and processes, as well as local reuse opportunities and recycling processors.

• INCREASED COOPERATION

The NPS and the JV work closely to leverage resources and maximize efficiency. For example, the NPS handled recycling the JV’s glass while the JV managed recycling the NPS’s cardboard.

• IMPROVED LOCAL COLLECTION

Recycling by nearby businesses and schools has expanded. Denali Borough, with no program of its own, is piloting summer programs to collect easily recycled materials like cardboard, aluminum and #1 plastic bottles. The ZLI partners worked directly with landfill operators and waste haulers to access Alaska’s existing recycling markets.

• NEW PARTNERSHIP

Air Land Transport provides low/no cost backhauling for recyclables to the MRF in Palmer, Alaska.

Snack boxes and snack foods were a voluminous challenge for Denali concessionaire Doyon/Aramark Joint Venture. So in 2017 the JV partnered with TerraCycle, a New Jersey-based firm that specializes in hard-to-recycle materials.

TerraCycle assisted in redesigning snack box products supplied to visitors on park road tours. They also helped source snack foods that could be composted and recycled through the TerraCycle program.

The result: By 2019, this program was diverting 135,000+ boxes and 2,600+ pounds of packaging and food waste from the landfill annually. That’s 3.4 tons of packaging and food waste! Plus each box now does double duty – in addition to food, it contains educational info on the park’s waste reduction efforts and the ZLI.

Other tour operators have adopted similar efforts to reduce non-recyclable waste, including HollandAmerica Princess, which brings in about two-thirds of the park’s visitors.

VISITOR EDUCATION

Zero Landfill Ambassadors Program: The Children Are Our Future

Student interests drive the waste reduction efforts of the Zero Landfill Ambassadors Program (ZLAP). Projects range from establishing initiatives to tackle recycling, composting and waste reduction at schools, to influencing area businesses and organizations to cut back on single-use items such as plastic water bottles and bags.

If you can get the kids involved, everyone starts to care about it. In an area dominated by coal mining and a coal power plant, there are many pressing needs that usually get more attention than sustainability. So it was magical when those families, no matter how they lean politically, supported their kids as they implemented a recycling program in their school. Now parents are composting and sending their kids to school with reusable baggies.

The takeaway: Get the kids involved and they will eventually get the adults involved – parents, school administrators and borough officials. And in time, the kids will take those ZLI lessons learned with them into adulthood.

But while the students may lead the charge, a teacher champion is still needed. Everybody wants to incorporate the children’s voices yet they have so many demands on their time, both in and out of school. Maintaining motivation is a challenge. That’s why, to keep things flexible, ZLAP hasn’t been formalized as a program. Instead the students meet at lunch once a week or biweekly.

The approach has worked. In the past few years, the ZLAP has expanded to three schools and more than 35 students who collaborate on projects and outreach locally and across the state.

At one school, students organized the collection of food waste that’s now used to feed local goats. They supported less reliance on single-use plastics in the lunchroom and afterschool programs by raising funds for a dishwasher in the school kitchen.

Out in the business community, one of the ZLAP’s first projects was to send a letter to area businesses asking them to stop selling water in single-use plastic bottles. The letter sparked an ongoing conversation that is having a positive impact. Alternatives like reusable water bottles are becoming more available and there’s more community messaging about what it takes to recycle plastic water bottles, especially in Alaska.

ZLAP representatives have been involved in countless media projects including Rock the Park, Growing a Greener World (National Public Television) and several regional and national publications.

To communicate their efforts and inspire others they launched an Instagram feed - @zlap.denali.

ZLAP at National Service-Learning Conference in Philadelphia

ZLI sponsored 3 teachers and 16 students in 2019. ZLAP student presented on ZLI and how ZLAP has connected the initiative to the school and community. Anderson student project about cardboard was displayed at 2019 conference. Service-learning is part of the Denali Borough School District strategic plan.

Community Events & Education

World Migratory Bird Day Alaska Zoo

Be the solution to plastic pollution was the theme at the Anchorage Zoo. The event attracted more than 700 attendees. NPCA and the Denali Education Center supported a ZLI information display with a pledge board for attendees to commit to reduce their use of single-use plastics. Many participants were given refillable bottle as an incentive for signing the pledge.

Engaging Denali’s Tourism Business Community

Husky Homestead led local businesses in integrated zero landfill into their operations and showcases their commitment in their programming, throughout their visitor operations, and in their retail/souvenir sales. Items such as refillable water bottles, totes, illustrated books and other signature items made from recycled and recyclable materials and sharing the zero landfill and recycling and waste diversion message for visitors to support while visiting and when back at home.

HollandAmerica Princess cruise lines through its land operations bring approximately 2/3rds of the visitors annually to Denali National Park via bus transport to the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge and McKinley Chalet Resort. Representatives of the company have been involved with the ZLI since its beginning, but in recent years have made substantial changes to reduce their environmental impacts and support broad adoption of the principals of the zero landfill initiative.

Efforts earned them the 2019 Alaskans for Litter Prevention and Recycling (ALPAR) Business Recycler of the Year.

Highlights of their leading work include:

Establishing the Sustain Alaska and the Yukon employee committee to lead -

• Cardboard recycling

• Reduction of single use plastics – replacing 99% of disposables

• Bulk condiment and beverage dispensers

• No trash can liners in guest rooms

• Biodegradable liners where possible

• “Refuse” as part of employee and company culture

• Collection and recycling of other key materials such as mixed paper, plastic wrap, aluminum cans and cooking oil

Future efforts include:

• Purchase of Biodigester for kitchen waste

• Conversion of plastic bottled water to Alaska Glacier water in aluminum cans

• Reusable lunch boxes

Travel Industry Partnerships Maximize Reach

Denali’s ZLI planners decided to go where the travelers are: the travel industry. Forming partnerships with the industry amplified ZLI messaging to a constant flow of visitors and even potential visitors.

2 million travelers visit Alaska annually

½ million of them include a trip to Denali NP

• Alaska Channel/Films produced an animated ZLI infographic and videos

  Reach: 2+ million hotel viewers, some of Alaska.org’s 3.8 million monthly users, plus independent (non-cruise) travelers

• Editorial partnerships with Milepost and Barefoot Guides resulted in coverage.

• Alaska Airlines in-flight magazine featured an article and full-page ads

  Reach: 3.8 million customers

• An episode of National Public Television’s Growing a Greener World program featured Don’t Feed the Landfills.

• Denali Chamber of Commerce added a ZLI page to the Visitor Center’s website

  Reach: While the page got only a small percentage of views, the cost was negligible – making every pair of eyeballs a bonus

• Alaska Travel Industry Association conference sponsorship / featured during NPS session

  Reach: 500+ travel industry attendees

Bus Drivers Drive Change

A park’s interpretive staff tend to be environmentally aware. And they’re good at spotting opportunities to promote positive environmental messages. But many park visitors never get the chance to speak with a ranger. The person they’re most likely to spend time with? The bus driver.

Since bus passengers are a captive audience, Denali developed ZLI talking points for the drivers. To keep pushing a project like this forward it needs supporters at the management level, and the management at concessionaire Doyon Aramark Joint Venture (JV) was fully on board.

The NPS ZLI project coordinator provided information for orientations and updates on new ideas that they were trying that were working. But the JV’s environmental program managers were the ones who knew the bus drivers, mechanics and Clean Team. Enthusiasm grew out of the genuineness of their interactions and pretty soon everyone was on board. The bus drivers were excited to have this to talk about with their passengers.

By the way, the JV had been the source of the snack pack idea. One of the drivers took the opportunity to roll that into the talking points, asking passengers to separate their trash and food waste into the two bags while telling them all about what’s recyclable in Alaska and what’s not.

Special Events Spread the World - Far and Wide

Early in the ZLI, the Denali stakeholder team looked for regional and statewide opportunities to gain interest in the effort and influence broader recycling and waste reduction throughout the Alaska. A significant part of this effort was participation in statewide and in some cases national and international tourism events. Examples of these efforts include:

• Alaska Travel Industry Association annual conference

• Alaska Forum for the Environment and associated conferences

• Adventure Travel and Tourism Association – Argentina 2017/Alaska 2018

• Confluence Summit – Tourism and Environment conference/Talkeetna, Sept. 2019

• Denali Centennial Celebration

• Denali Education Center Annual Auction

• Alaska Salmon festival

• Annual Denali Summer, Blueberry and Winterfest

• 4th of July and Labor Day Celebrations

• Trash-in-Fashion youth engagement

• Election Day education and giveaways

• Chamber of Commerce events

• Outreach at the annual park Road Lottery and other community events using ZLAP kids and other community volunteers.

This visibility has led to a series of awards and recognition.

Highlights include:

• Alaskans for Litter Prevention and Recycling (ALPAR) -Joe Gulley President’s Award for Outstanding Leadership/April 2020

• Alaska Travel Industry Association – Stan Stephens Stewardship Award – Denali Education Center/2019

• Outstanding Business Recycler - Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge/2019

• Zero-Landfill Ambassador Program (ZLAP) Council – Spirit of Youth Discovery Award – March 2019

• Native nation conferences

• Public Lands Alliance (2017-2019)

EMPLOYEE EDUCATION

JV employee outreach about recycling

Where to recycle; what is recyclable; what is terrecyclable; what to do with universal waste.

Over 1,100 employees educated about Zero-Landfill at staff orientations and employee events.

Denali Community Partners

Air Land Transport / Denali Borough / Denali Borough School District / Denali Chamber of Commerce / Denali Education Center / Holland American Princess/Denali Princess Lodge / Native Village of Cantwell/Recycling / Old Harbor (Denali Bluffs Hotel) / Pacific Waste Susitna Organics / Talkeetna Recycling Committee / Valley Community Recycling Solutions

Links to highlighted projects

Links to Other Parks Page