Arctic Conundrums
How remote communities tackle the challenges of waste management
The Arctic: a vast and sparsely populated region
There are about four million people living in the Arctic, spread across eight countries: Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States.
The vast majority of settlements (90 per cent) have less than 5000 inhabitants, and these communities are spread across a vast territory equivalent to the size of China. The remaining 10 per cent of settlements are much larger, mostly administrative centres where about three million people, or three quarters of the total population of the Arctic live (Wang et al., 2021).
With such a low population density, one would expect the Arctic environment to remain free of mismanaged waste and pollution. However, just like in the rest of the world, increasing amounts of plastic and other waste are accumulating in the Arctic. Increasing troubling sightings of waste in the Arctic Ocean and on its remote beaches have alerted the local and international communities to this critical problem in recent years.
The global trajectory indicates that plastic production will double by 2040, posing a significant threat of environmental contamination.
In recent years, various international initiatives have emerged to address this escalating problem. Notably, the 2019 amendments to the Basel Convention have introduced more robust, legally binding controls on the transboundary movement of specific plastic wastes. These measures aim to mitigate the risks associated with plastic litter and microplastics infiltrating the ocean. The amendments also encourage enhanced sorting of plastic waste into cleaner fractions before export, fostering increased recycling rates and promoting a more circular global economy for plastics.
Moreover, during the resumed fifth session of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-5.2) in March 2022, a resolution was adopted to craft an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including plastic in the marine environment.
This comprehensive approach aims to address the entire life cycle of plastic, encompassing its production, design, and disposal. While it remains uncertain how or if the treaty will specifically address the Arctic or include Indigenous perspectives, its potential impact underscores its significance in the broader international campaign against excessive plastic production.
The Arctic Ocean receives the most water flow from the Atlantic Ocean (79 per cent) with most of the remainder from the Pacific Ocean (19 per cent) as well, which can carry waste originating from outside the Arctic (PAME, 2019).
The true origin of the pollution is hard to determine but can often be attributed to specific human activities such as fishing through the presence of nets, ropes and buoys, or general household waste through the presence of food and personal care product packaging.
What challenges do the communities face?
Waste management facility in Nuuk, Greenland
Local communities, including Indigenous Peoples, face many unique challenges when developing Environmentally Sound Management (ESM) for their waste.
Distance
In the Arctic, Indigenous Peoples often depend on local, untreated water and local resources such as fish, plants and animals for a substantial portion of their diets. This way of living is also important for the social wellbeing of the community. These are strong, resilient communities living “off the land” (and on the land).
Subsistence fishing (left) and hunting (right)
Settlements are often separated by hundreds or thousands of kilometres, with an almost nonexistent road network, or one that is at best only functional for part of the year. Bringing goods or food usually means long delivery times and expensive transport costs.
The most common means of transport is plane, which can cover long distances quickly, but remains expensive and is mostly used to transport people or high-value goods and fresh food.
For larger items, a barge or boat is a better transport solution, because many settlements are located in close proximity to the coastline or riverbanks.
In the Arctic context, the environmental costs of recycling often outweigh any environmental benefits purely because of the high carbon emissions needed to transport materials over long distances (Burns et al. 2021).
Types of waste
In the past, traditional lifestyles in the Arctic produced little nonbiodegradable waste. However, with more modern lifestyles, the food products and other household items reaching the Arctic are generally no different from those used in the rest of the world. Therefore, waste produced by Arctic communities is also comparable to the waste produced elsewhere in the world. The main difference is the lack of waste management systems in many places in the Arctic.
Food packaging, old electronics, used motor oil, light bulbs, metal scraps, and plastic bottles are now all examples of typical waste generated in communities around the Arctic.
Accumulation of waste
Outside of the Arctic, a city of about one million people would have to invest US$ 10 million to develop basic landfilling infrastructure, equivalent to US$ 10 per inhabitant, as a one-off investment. Similar investments would be necessary for recycling or energy recovery facilities, and running costs must also be considered yearly (World Bank, 2018).
Due to its remoteness, these cost estimates do not apply for Arctic communities, with the price per inhabitant significantly higher. Basic landfills are thus the preferred solution in Arctic landscapes, which can lead to health and environmental issues.
Another key driver for consequences related to the accumulation of waste is climate change, which is happening much faster in the Arctic region than in the rest of the world. Climate change has a direct and significant impact on ecosystem, local communities, and traditional ways of living. For example, declining Arctic Sea ice has opened up new transport routes, new and wider opportunities for the fishing industry – one of the largest contributors to marine pollution.
Open dumps are often located on frozen ground in the vicinity of settlements, subject to frequent flooding during the spring thaw. Contamination of surface waters (Mutter et al., 2017), toxicity of flue gases from incineration (Eisted et al., 2013) and waste spillage represent some challenges in Arctic waste management.
Expected warmer temperatures, which increase the seasonal thaw will likely exacerbate these issues in the Arctic, which would put additional pressure on communities.
Here we present how challenges related to waste management in three remote communities across the Arctic are being solved.
These cases are focus on how communities are showing commitment to the well-being of the people inhabiting these distant regions. The success of these projects is propelled by effective cooperation between governmental authorities, private sector and non-profit organisation, ensuring a holistic and inclusive approach to waste management.
Moreover, the cases leverage existing infrastructure and transport routes, optimizing efficiency and minimizing logistical challenges in waste disposal. A key strategy involves significant investments in the private sector, transforming recycling into a profitable venture and imbuing waste with intrinsic value. This not only fosters economic sustainability but also positions recycling as a viable and attractive option for waste disposal.
Backhaul Alaska program: Hazardous waste removal in the Arctic
There are approximately 200 rural, isolated, and small Alaskan communities that are not connected to the state’s road system. They must be accessed by boat or barge through waterways or by small plane service from one of the state’s rural hub cities, which may also have limited or no road access.
Backhaul Alaska is a program coordinating the hauling of harmful waste and materials out of rural Alaskan communities and ensures responsible recycling. It began with 26 communities and is actively expanding to cover all of rural Alaska within a ten-year timeline.
In rural Native Alaskan villages and some small towns that are not connected to roads in the United States, there's a special provision from the federal government about how they handle trash. Unlike other places, they can burn their trash openly and can build trash dump sites close to communities, even in wetlands, without needing a protective lining, a cover, or a system to treat any liquid that leaks from the trash, also known as leachate.
For communities relying on the local food, water and environment for their way of life, the risk of toxic contamination due to improper waste management is high.
The Backhaul Alaska program sustainably manages hazardous waste disposal and facilitates the recycling of profitable materials. Backhaul is the concept of using a carrier that would otherwise be returning empty and thus offers reduced transportation rates. The small planes and barges that deliver basic goods and essential supplies are used to transport waste for disposal or recycling to an appropriate facility in the larger cities of Fairbanks or Anchorage, and in some cases shipped further south to Seattle to be disposed of properly.
Organizing a solution for waste in rural Alaskan communities was no small task. The entire Backhaul Alaska program was initiated in 2014 when the United States senator for Alaska, Lisa Murkowski, visited rural communities and observed the waste disposal challenges they were facing.
Over several years, many different entities including communities, backhaul experts, agencies, and transporters came together to develop a framework for a Statewide Sustainable Backhaul Plan.
The creation of the Solid Waste Alaska Taskforce (SWAT), allowed exploration of ways to implement a state-wide system of waste backhaul that would help address or alleviate some of the funding issues for rural Alaska communities. SWAT became a multi-agency taskforce to help remote communities build sustainable solid waste programs and is made up of representatives from Kawerak Inc., Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (ADEC), Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC), and Zender Environmental Health and Research Group.
SWAT oversees the Backhaul Alaska Program and Zender Environmental carries out the program.
In 2018 a two-phase pilot program began with funding from the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Transportation, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and Denali Commission, and was based in select villages.
Implementation
Pilot 1 – In 2018 comprehensive training was carried out with the communities using the newly drafted State-wide Uniform Curriculum, and program protocols. Safety gear and packaging supplies were purchased for pilot communities. Local material inventories were carried out, and site visits to pilot communities by Program Coordinators took place in 2019. Hazardous waste materials were first backhauled south to Seattle in the summer of 2019.
Pilot 2 – The second pilot was carried out in 2019/2020 with 16 new communities throughout the state and followed a similar program to Pilot 1. Results were analysed from both pilots and the Program is now in full implementation and currently serving 97 rural communities. Since the program started, over 270 people have been trained from communities across the state, and over 1 million pounds of materials have been backhauled out of communities.
Pilot 1 on the left and Pilot 2 on the right
With the success of the Backhaul Alaska programme remote communities can send back their hazardous waste to be disposed of in the best conditions. The threat to their health and the environment is reduced but it remains a costly operation, impossible without the help of different actors from government, private sector, associations, and local communities.
The program is working towards sustainability with new partners being added every year that are providing transportation and other donations, as well as SWAT’s effort to bring Product Stewardship (EPR) to Alaska.
Greenland waste management: from settlements to centralized management scheme.
With 17 towns and 55 settlements spread out over thousands of kilometres along the Greenlandic coastline, waste management is a real challenge.
Many settlements have their own dumpsites, out of which one third are considered managed or partially managed landfills. The other two thirds are often located in the smallest communities with limited funds to manage them.
In 2020, the Greenland Ministry of Research and Environment released the Waste Action Plan 2020-2031 to solve the issues faced by communities nationwide. The recent waste action plan aims at changing deeply the actual system by putting in place a vast waste collection network by boat to be incinerated in two state of the art facilities in the capital, Nuuk, and Sisimiut, the two largest settlements in Greenland. The energy produced will be used as urban heating for the approximately 19,000 and 5,500 inhabitants, respectively, and fumes will be treated to prevent air pollution.
Stuff getting incinerated in Nuuk
The amount of burnable waste produced in Greenland is estimated to be of 80 tons per day, but currently the country’s primary incinerator, in Nuuk, has a max capacity of 44 tons per day, with an actual burning average of 40 tons per day.
Centralising the collection of waste through and enhanced system of transportation will hopefully improve the waste management and optimise the use of energy produced by waste incineration.
Sisimiut and Nuuk, representing 41 per cent of the population, already have facilities able to store the heat produced at any time of the year and have thus been chosen to host the two new common incinerators.
The two new incinerators will be able to burn 53 tons of waste per day each, and the heat produced will be reclaimed to heat the cites.
In 2019, a national waste management company created by the five municipalities of Greenland, launched under the name of ESANI (for “Waste, Resources, Recycling, Energy, Company” in Greenlandic). ESANI is responsible for the collection of waste and its transport throughout Greenland, followed by storage, incineration in accordance with the environmental standards, and then for the sale of the heat produced. ESANI will also oversee the collection of oil waste that would be transported for incineration in the communities of Qaqortoq, Maniitsoq and Aasiaat.
Each municipality has already participated with two million Danish Kroner and Naalakkersuisut (the Government of Greenland) has provided six million Danish Kroner.
It is estimated that the implementation of the project (2019-2024) will cost in total 10 million Danish Kroner for each of the five municipalities . The incinerators are expected to be ready for use in 2024.
The government, Naalakkersuisut, have for years encouraged the implementation of pilot sites on the basis that joint incineration solutions are a socio-economically and environmentally better solution than the establishment of incineration plants everywhere.
Abondoned incenerator in Upernavik district
In the Qeqqata municipality, some settlements have been chosen as pilot sites for the transport solution and centralised incineration. In 2017 it was decided that the Sarfannguaq (126 people) and Napasoq (85 people) communities would be the pilot sites for the transportation of all the waste to Mannitsoq, until Sisimiut gets the new incineration plant. The two settlements are respectively 166 km and 46,8 km away from Maniitsoq.
Regarding oil waste, in 2017 the Qeqqata municipality has decided to attempt to collect it from all settlements and transport it to Itivdleq for processing.
In August 2019 ESANI tested its first collection of waste from Tasiilaq, the northernmost city on the east coast of Greenland, with its cargo ship North Viking, that can carry up to 3740 m3 of waste with a maximum weight of 2600 tons . On its first trip, North Viking collected 1,106 tonnes of metal and iron waste that was later shipped to Denmark.
Limitations: The north-western municipality of Greenland, Avannaata Kommunia, has retracted itself from the common waste management system, estimating it was too expensive for its four towns and 23 settlements, accounting for around 11.000 inhabitants (19 per cent of Greenland’s population) on a territory of 522.700 km2 (one quarter of the total territory). The municipality said they prefer to manage their waste at a municipal level by installing small incinerators in all settlements. They mainly criticise the price of storage and packaging of waste, as well as the smell emanating from this storage between collection days.
Kola waste Project clean-up
The Sámi people have traditionally relied on a combination of livelihoods such as reindeer husbandry, subsistence fishing, hunting, trapping, and gathering. These activities are still essential economies for the Sámi people, either as the primary income or as subsistence activities on the side, and thus still constitutes the basis for nutrition, well-being, and future opportunities. These economic sources for healthy foods and cultural activities are under pressure, and unauthorized waste dumpsites and old landfills threaten Sámi nature resources and Sámi health.
The Kola Waste project started in 2018 with Ivan Mathrekin, at the time, the head of Association of Sámi in Murmansk Oblast (OOSMO), who approached the Saami Council with the idea of the Kola Waste project. He had seen the increasing pressure and need for better waste management in the Saami Communities on the Kola Peninsula.
The Saami Council sees the project as a way of helping Saami communities on the Russian side act to both build the organization and solve concrete problems, while also being a good way to connect to the work of the Indigenous Peoples Contaminants Action Programme (IPCAP) expert group under the Arctic Contaminants Action Program (ACAP).
The project began with the support and approval of the Arctic Council, more precisely the IPCAP expert group. The financial support was provided by Sweden and Norway through the Saami Council (as Permanent Participants of the Arctic Council) for the field work. The ACAP secretariat has been supporting outreach activities and highlighting the concrete action made in the project.
Waste accumulates in different locations around the Kola Peninsula, coming from a wide range of sources across different time periods. The Project has cleaned up household waste from several relatively recent illegal dumpsites, mostly located near villages that are not connected by road. This is a result of the transportation of waste into the communities being larger than what is possible to handle locally, and too little waste transported out of the communities.
The Kola Peninsula has several abandoned military and industrial projects from the later years of the Soviet Union. One example is a geological exploration project from the Polovinnaya mountain. Because of the large distances and remote location waste like scrap metal from abandoned machinery and tools remain unmanaged.
Modern waste is different from traditional waste, and requires different management. While traditionally most waste consisted of organic materials, today’s waste is complex and with mixed material. Plastic waste and batteries, for example, are very hard to recycle locally.
Previously, waste has always been seen as resources and could be used for tools, fuel or as building materials. This was the traditional way of life in the Arctic environment. But with the introduction of non-biodegradable and hazardous waste, this approach became harder. Now, a larger amount of waste cannot be reused, and is harder to dispose of because of remoteness. The waste has become a massive problem instead of a valuable resource.
Through the Kola Waste Project, collected waste was sent to recycling facilities in the Murmansk region. Plastic waste was sorted, and some of the burnable waste was burned in place to reduce the amount needed to be transported. Norwegian and Swedish experts have been teaching about the dangers of burning some types of waste, as the fumes contain hazardous substances that could be inhaled.
The Kola Waste Project video.mp4
Conclusions
Many remote Arctic communities face similar issues for waste disposal. Their location presents them with unique challenges for obtaining suitable infrastructure to manage their waste and for transporting it, making recycling especially difficult in the Arctic.
This story has presented some of the initiatives for the Arctic to work towards a better waste management scheme for the future.
But while the initiatives from Alaska, Greenland and Kola showcase commendable progress, it is crucial to recognize that there is no one-size-fits-all solution for Arctic waste management.
Each community faces unique challenges influenced by factors such as distance, types of waste, and accumulation issues. As the international community works towards a Plastics Treaty and other global initiatives, it is imperative to consider the specific needs of Arctic communities and incorporate their perspectives into comprehensive waste management strategies. The continued collaboration, support, and adaptation of innovative practices – across sectors and countries- will be essential to safeguard the Arctic environment and the well-being of its inhabitants in the face of escalating waste challenges.
