Sir Moves A Lot located in West Sedona is the City's only quasi-transfer station tucked along side Airport Mesa down the long and narrow Sunset Drive off 89A onto Shelby Drive and through narrow winding back streets to Finley Drive in a lot near the Humane Society and Sedona mini-storage.

Sedona City Council seeks partners in trash

A transfer station in Sedona, lower down on the City's priority list

by Carl Jackson | Sedona.biz

Sedona, AZ - In early January 2008, the Sedona City Council met to discuss whether the City should assume responsibility for trash collection in Sedona. Under the plan, the City would provide curbside recycling and trash collection, and biomass pickup (flammable vegetation like branches and brush) for all Sedona residents. 

The idea fizzled into a possible cardboard ordinance to encourage recycling once the City Council learned that about 90% of Sedona residents have trash service and are generally satisfied with their haulers.

The issue of trash disposal has been ripening ever since the Brins Mesa fire in June 2006 highlighted the need for all residents to become firewise by creating a defensible perimeter around their homes by clearing out brush and branches.  Temporary biomass disposal dumpsters were provided by the Sedona Fire District in Uptown shortly after the Brins Mesa fire which demonstrated that a conveniently located drop-off point for biomass could make sense.

Since that time, however, trash disposal has taken on a higher purpose:  reducing illegal dumping in the National Forest, and litter along the roadway.  The City of Sedona is also concerned about debris finding its way into the City's storm water drainage ways.

According to Kate Blevins of Verde Earthworks, illegal dumping in the forest is generally done by small haulers like landscapers and contractors who want to avoid the cost of hauling their waste to landfills; and not residents.

One idea being considered is to build a transfer station in or near Sedona where residents, landscapers, and construction crews could bring their trash for further transfer to a landfill in Dewey, Arizona.

The thinking seems to be that those thoughtless enough to dump their debris in the National Forest wouldn't do so if a transfer station was close by unless, of course, it was free.

Sir Moves A Lot in Sedona (on Finley Drive) currently provides a quasi transfer station where  local residents, landscapers and contractors can bring their solid waste, landscape waste, and demolition materials as well as mattresses, appliances, tires, and car batteries; but the facility is considered small and difficult to get access.  There are also transfers stations in Cottonwood and Camp Verde.

At the February 26, 2006 city council meeting, the Council once again took up the issue of a transfer station.  City Manager, Eric Levitt, presented two possible locations:  behind the Cultural Park on National Forest Land; and at the Wastewater Treatment Plant further down 89A.

Although the Cultural Park location was considered the most conveniently located, the City Council wasn't ready for a battle with nearby neighborhoods, and quickly rejected it. Said City Council member, John Bradshaw,  "I'm in favor of doing more investigation on the Wastewater Treatment Plant [as a location]...I don't want City Staff doing lot of work on the Cultural Park when we all know that we're going to get a lot of resistance from homeowners and it's probably not going to go anywhere."

Most members considered the Wastewater Treatment Plant to be too far away to be a convenient and effective location for a transfer station.  There was also a general concern about using valuable and scarce City land for a transfer station that could use up as much as 5 acres (probably around 1-2 acres).  Said Mayor Colquitt, "What if [the City] wants to develop the Wastewater Plant for [affordable] housing or a park...I'm not saying we're going to do this; it's just an example.  But if we had a transfer station there, how would it effect those kinds of plans?  We need to think ahead."

Sir Moves A Lot located in West Sedona is the City's only quasi-transfer station tucked along side Airport Mesa down the long and narrow Sunset Drive off 89A onto Shelby Drive and through narrow winding back streets to Finley Drive in a lot near the Humane Society and Sedona mini-storage.