The University of Alaska Fairbanks is scrapping its current recycling program at the end of the month.
According to the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, UAF Chancellor Brian Rogers sent a letter to the Fairbanks North Star Borough ordering the June 1 removal of dumpsters now stationed at the school's Taku parking lot. The dumpsters represented a major component of the university's recycling program.
In the letter, Rogers claims 90 percent of the material dropped there is coming from area residents and not from students and staff at the university, as was originally intended.
K&K Recycling has been picking up the material and either reusing or recycling it.
According to KTVF-TV, the university spent more than $130,000 last year hauling away material from the dumpsters and Rogers says he cannot continue to use school funds to pay for community-wide recycling. That's the borough's responsibility, he said.
Rogers says UAF will find another way to address recycling on campus. So far, he says, the borough has shown little interest in addressing the problem.
Mayor Luke Hopkins says he is looking for ways to retain recycling in Fairbanks, including how to change the way companies are paid for hauling away and recycling trash.