Meadow Lakes business owner continues to reduce, reuse and recycle

WASILLA — Affordable Catering owner Andrea Thistle has been actively recycling and sending food waste to a local farmer through her business for the last four years. She said that it started out by helping some friends and grew into a lifelong habit.

“The more I became aware of recycling I realized food waste is not healthy for our landfills at all so the good thing to do is save our earth I guess,” Thistle said.

Thistle said that she’s lived in Alaska all her life and been in the Valley since 1987. She said the Valley’s rapid growth calls for more preventive steps to protect the environment and build a more sustainable future.

“Preserving our nature is all of our responsibility,” Thistle said.

Thistle stressed that she’s not a “bunny hugger” and you don’t have be a “hippy” to care about sustainable practices.

“I just feel like we all have a responsibility to be good stewards of our earth,” Thistle said.

Thistle buys as much local meat and produce as much as she can to reduce waste and keep her overhead low. She separates her food waste in different bins. The bins are left outside at the end of each day and picked up by a local pig farmer. She also separates her recyclables at the Big Lake Transfer Site for free on weekends.

She’s trained her employees to follow her practices which have become a part of their work routine. She said the little bit of extra effort goes a long way and when it comes down it, adding better practices is a fairly simple and easy thing to do.

“It takes five seconds to rinse out a tomato sauce can,” Thistle said.

Thistle noted that other local businesses like the Wolf Eye Center are good role models for sustainable business practices. She said that she’s not the trend setter, rather she’s simply doing her part.

She hopes that as awareness spreads, more local businesses start adding sustainable practices of their own. She said it doesn’t take much to start. It can be as basic as separating all the cardboard and paper waste.

“I would suggest people start with just a few items,” Thistle said.

Thistle’s various efforts reduced her weekly trash fees. She said the benefits of reducing, reusing and recycling go above and beyond saving money. She said it’s about creating a more sustainable future and everyone has an obligation to do what they can to help.

The Valley Community Recycling Solutions (VCRS) accepts most recyclable materials except for glass. It’s the only recycling center in the Valley. The Valley is about the size of West Virginia.

Looking forward, Thistle said that she would like to see additional recycling centers pop up around the Valley. She would also like to see Matanuska-Susitna Borough officials implement incentives for the residents to recycle.

For more information about local recycling solutions, call VCRS at 907- 745-5544 or visit valleyrecycling.org

To learn more about Affordable Catering, call 907- 715-7013 or visit affordablecateringak.com

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman reporter Jacob Mann at jacob.mann@frontiersman.com