Garage sale, Earth Day event at recycling center

April 15, 2004

DAWN De BUSK/Frontiersman reporter

Bargain hunters might find great treasures - as well as support recycling projects in the Mat-Su - during a garage sale today, Saturday and Sunday at the Valley Community for Recycling Solutions center, located near the intersection of Palmer-Wasilla Highway and North 49th State Street.

The sale will take place from 9 a.m. -6 p.m. each of those days.

In addition to giving the center a financial boost by buying garage sale items, residents dedicated to the recycling cause may buy a $100 annual membership pass. When a member brings recyclable materials to the facility, a decal on their windshield allows the driver to skip the suggested donation box. The windshield decal is good for a year from the time it's acquired, said Teslin Phillips, volunteer coordinator.

The weekend fund-raiser kicks off a string of events tied to "Resource Awareness Month." Staff members and volunteers will be jumping from project to project, each relying on community involvement, during the busy month of April.

€ On Earth Day, April 22, Valley residents may attend an open house from 5-7 p.m. The event is designed to promote Resource Awareness Month, to teach the public how to recycle, and show off the center's new baler - a machine that packs materials into tight bundles. The new baler cost $100,000 and was purchased using grant money.

Also, staff will reveal their expansion project, their plans to build a new facility constructed according to "green" building standards. Some of the requirements for a green building include using recycled materials as part of the construction, using alternative sources of energy like wind-generation and solar power and requesting public input on the project.

"Every April, we hold an open house, where we invite the public to come to our facilities and bring them up to speed," Phillips said.

€ The recycling center has expanded its hours to better meet the recycling needs of the Valley. A workday's worth of hours have been added to times of operation. The center will be open from 2-6 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, in addition to 11 a.m. -3 p.m. Saturdays.

That's a huge leap from the era when the nonprofit group collected recyclable materials only four times a year.

The group would set up trailer vans outside the old Wal-Mart building, which now houses Sears, and load them up. So, residents had the opportunity to recycle close to home four Saturdays out of the year, for only four hours each time. It was a longer operation for workers, who set up, participated in the actual event and buttoned down afterwards, Phillips said.

"We started out as a grass-roots organization. It's really fun to see how far we've come from operating out of a parking lot," Phillips said.

€ The last weekend of this month, the not-for-profit group will hold an electronic recycling event. People will be able to free themselves of their rundown computers - or other unusable electronic equipment - for a low cost.

"Green Star receives a grant to run this program. The grant allows the landfill to take computers at a greatly reduced fee. Usually there's a fee associated with dumping electronic equipment," Phillips said.

The electronic recycling program will take place at the Mat-Su Central Landfill April 29 and April 30, from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m., each day.

€ On the second Saturday of each month, members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1547 give their time to the recycling center, according to Jackie Endsley, IBEW community relations coordinator and a former VCRS board member.

"I used to have to call people and ask them to volunteer. Now they just show up," Endsley said, adding that during the last three month 13 to 15 IBEW people showed up to the center to assist the public.

"When we're there, people don't have to get out of their car. We approach them and help - especially the senior citizens, so they don't have to carry stuff from their vehicles," she said. "My sister lives in the Valley and she asks me, 'What day is IBEW Saturday? Because I don't like to have to get out of my car.'"

"We have three employees. We cannot function without the volunteers coming in on a regular basis," Phillips said.

The IBEW volunteers also provide educational outreach, letting people know to take the labels off steel cans or take caps off plastic containers.

"Recycling is all about sorting," Endsley said.

The IBEW installed three-phase power to run a baler for cardboard, which the facility currently uses for all material, but the center is acquiring a new baler this month.

"I'm sure we'll be right in there, helping them with the new baler," Endsley said.

The old baler is not strong enough to bale steel cans or catalogs. Plus, it creates bundles of aluminum cans that are not standard-sized. So, when the bales are sent to the Anchorage Recycling Center, staff members there have to break them down and rebale them.

Although the new hours are going into effect this week and a new baler will also be operating this month, a brand-new center constructed according to green building codes is still a few years away from realization.

The fund-raising garage sale and membership drive will help generate some of the money necessary to get the project off the ground.

Already, the Mat-Su Borough has provided the group with a lease-free parcel of land, and IBEW helped clear that land about three years ago. The property is located next to the Mat-Su Animal Care and Regulation Shelter.

Right now, VCRS spends $1,500 a month to rent the spot where the facilities are set up.

€ Earlier this month, VCRS not only manned a booth, but provided recycling for the 2005 Home Show.

"We set it up so vendors and patrons could recycle beverage containers and cardboard. We collected quite a bit of recyclables," Teslin said.

For more information - as well as a sorting guide for recyclable material - visit www.valleyrecycling.org.