Recycling, Earth Day should be every day

Recycling makes every day Earth Day.

I took a tour of the recycling center in Palmer as part of my Earth Day celebration activities. And I was nearly overwhelmed by the operation in scope and sophistication. Thanks to Mollie Boyer and the staff at the Valley Center for Recyling Solutions, the tour opened my eyes as to what recycling really means and the potential it has for our future as Alaskans.

Mollie was just a voice on the air with Mike Chmielewski and I Tuesday mornings on KVRF’s Big Cabbage Radio before the tour. Earth Day changed all that for the better.

Mollie is very passionate about anything recycling. I knew that from all the time spent on air. But in person, her enthusiasm is infectious.

I was introduced to the entire staff and to all of those attending the open house event. Some I knew from around town, some knew me from the radio show or from my column in the Frontiersman.

The classroom was filled with people eating, talking and looking at the small samples of products the center produces. Education is a big thing to Mollie and the rest that work here. School groups come over for field trips. In the winter months the center puts on a movie night for families.

The classroom looks into the main warehouse below. I was stunned by the size of the bales rising up from the warehouse floor to just about level with the window.

These bales weighed up to 2,200 pounds in some cases. Each bale stack and row was a different product. There was a row of mixed paper, another of crushed aluminum cans, followed by bales of crushed steel cans and lids.

The machine that did this could be viewed from the window off to my left. It sat next to a smaller, older baling machine. I heard Mollie talk about this monster with a lot of enthusiasm on the air, now I was looking down on this two-story behemoth nicknamed “Badger.”

“Do you want to take a tour Dan?” asked Mollie.

I nodded my head like a schoolboy.

In no time, I was hooked up with Dewey Taylor. I learned later that Dewey was not only my guide for the day, he also is on the VCRS board of directors.

Dewey was full of the same enthusiasm that just oozed from everyone I met that day. Within a minute after I suited up in vest and hardhat, Dewey asked me if I wanted to see the “fuel project” first. Did he even have to ask? Of course, I wanted to see it.

Mollie really got Mike and I intrigued during one of our Tuesday morning sessions on air. Imagine taking pieces of used plastic and rendering it down to its original form — oil or refined into fuel.

Sounds like science fiction? I was about to meet the science fact.

Dewey led me to the far end of the building opposite of the classroom and out an open door to a covered landing outside. There I was introduced to David Dinkle and his project – a rectangular box with a clear cylinder at one end measuring roughly 2 feet by 1 foot. The cylinder had two types of fluid within it. On the bottom was water, on top was the oil. David showed me a bucket of shredded plastic bits that appeared to be from a yogurt tub. This material is introduced into the burner part of the machine.

The rest gets technical, but the end result was an oil which would later be put through the system again to refine it to fuel. So far, they have made diesel, gasoline and even kerosene fuel products in small amounts.

There was a real gleam in David’s eyes as he went on about a larger set up – as in a 40-foot-long trailer version.

“Imagine what a set-up like that could do in a village?”

Then I was off with Dewey to go see the Badger up close and personal. But first he showed me the covered two lane separation area that was built for the comfort of customers and the volunteer handlers that assist them. Designed and built this year to keep out the worst of Alaska’s wind and weather, it is a godsend to customer and crew alike as they put items to be recycled into separate bins.

The Badger sat front and center within the warehouse. It is roughly the length of a school bus and just under two stories tall at its highest point. It can compress and bale just about everything there.

The Badger is three times faster than their older machine, which they still use. And it is 100 percent more efficient and worker-friendly than its older counterpart.

I just stood there for a moment taking it all in, flabbergasted. VCRS has come a long way since Mollie started it 17 years ago in the Walmart parking lot. I know I’m going to do a lot more than just recycle our cardboard from now on.

We can all make every day Earth Day by removing recyclables from our trash and then taking them to VCRS. While there, you can find out more about how to keep Alaska green.

You can also visit VCRS online at valleyrecycling.org or give a call at 745-5544.