The City and Borough of Juneau is offering free vehicle towing and recycling for the first 50 residents who register beginning Friday morning at 8 a.m.

Registration will be on Skookum Recycling’s website, who partners with the city to recycle the programs.

“Because we do the junk vehicles all year, we used to do these roundups, many many years ago,” said Stuart Ashton, operations manager for the city’s vehicle recycling program. “In 2016, our program took in 352 cars. We changed the structure a little bit. We’re hitting 800 every year, 800 plus. I’m almost positive we would have hit over 1,000 the first COVID year if that hadn’t happened.”

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To be eligible for the program, the vehicle must meet several requirements, according to the Recycleworks page.

— Vehicles must be located on the property of the individual registering

— Vehicles must be easily accessible from public roads

— Vehicles must be free of all garbage and loose car parts

— Vehicles must have been registered in Juneau at one time

— Vehicles must have rolling wheels and inflated tires and be able to be towed

These requirements are in place to make it economical for Skookum to recycle the vehicle, Ashton said.

“If the vehicle was at one point registered in Juneau and it falls within our means, it’s a passenger, non-commercial vehicle, we’ll cover it,” Ashton said. “Clean it out so they don’t have to. They process the hazardous materials.”

The program exists to fill a gap that would regularly be filled by private companies in places on the road network, Ashton said, but that Juneau’s isolation makes non-viable.

“If we were on the road system or anywhere else, private industry would absolutely take care of it,” Ashton said. “If we were anywhere else, it would be a lot easier. You go to them and they might even give you money for it. But once you add the shipping, forget about it.”

While the program exists year-round, periodic round-ups gives the city a good tool to assess the need for junk car disposal in the community, Ashton said.

“​​For us, it’s also a good metric. We’re going to get a list of the people that want to do it,” Ashton said. “It’s a really good one off to get the metrics and see how to better adjust the program to serve the needs of the community.”

• Contact reporter Michael S. Lockett at (757) 621-1197 or mlockett@juneauempire.com.