Clearing a home …Volunteers lend hand in building VCRS site

MAT-SU -- A group of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers members descended on a treed lot behind the Mat-Su Borough Animal Care and Regulation shelter Saturday and, in the name of recycling, fired up their chain saws.

The group of 13 worked long hours to chop down trees and clear a 250-foot-by-500-foot area for Valley Community for Recycling Solutions' permanent recycling center.

The land, according to VCRS Executive Director Mollie Boyer, will be used for a 10,000-square-foot building and a few covered areas that will house machinery such as a baler to bundle cardboard, newspaper and other products and a glass crusher.

In the building itself, Boyer said, there will be office space and a classroom that can be used to educate volunteers or area youth about projects going on at the center. The majority of the building, however, will be dedicated to processing and materials storage.

Boyer said groups such as IBEW have volunteered their time to help the organization develop a permanent recycling facility.

"Organizations are actually calling to see if they can help out for their service projects," Boyer said.

But there's ever more work to be done. The five acres now being developed by the group will take some significant time and effort to clear. The land needs a significant amount of leveling, so there will be some time spent working the property with heavy machinery -- a project the group is still looking for volunteers to finish.

Some of the heavy-equipment work will be traded, Boyer said. She recently negotiated a trade of lumber for the use of heavy equipment.

The land development is just the first phase in the project, Boyer said. In this phase, the land will be cleared and the pad will be set -- everything up to constructing the building. She's hoping containers will be available for recycling drop-offs. In the next phase, the building will be constructed, allowing some expansion of services, and the final phase will allow the group to handle commercial waste -- the recyclable products from the Valley's largest industries.

Boyer said she's hoping to reuse as much of the material displaced from the land clearing as possible. VCRS will allow people to take wood in return for a donation to the organization. Tree limbs and other wood unsuitable for firewood will be chipped and used for sale or site landscaping.

The group hopes to incorporate recyclable materials into the building construction. The base of the site, Boyer said, may be partially constructed from shredded tires, for example. They're also hoping to incorporate some of the land's natural elements into the site's design. Boyer said she envisions benches here and there on the property, with groupings of trees -- a reminder of what the land once was and completing the circle from natural resources to recycled materials.

"It'll be good solid-waste management, wedded with resource management, to encourage economic development and economic opportunities," Boyer said.