Recycling group on location for one year

MAT-SU -- Greeters handed out chocolate Hershey Kisses with gloved hands to people driving up with trunks and truck beds full of recyclable materials Saturday.

The kisses were in celebration of the achievements of the past year -- a year that has meant a lot of growth for Valley Community for Recycling Solutions.

On the shortest day of the year last year, VCRS made a big leap, from organizing one drop-off every quarter at empty local parking lots such as Wal-Mart or Colony High School, to once-a-week recycling events.

In that time frame, a number of things have happened that allow the organization to increase efficiencies and make things run smoother. Two of the largest components of that are a materials baler, donated by Waste Management Inc., and a forklift, purchased with donations from the Rasmuson Foundation, Independent Lift Truck, and Dr. Lynn Mickelson. With the two pieces of equipment -- and the help of John LeClare, a quarter-time VCRS employee who operates the baler -- the group has been able to consolidate a lot of the waste, cutting transport costs significantly. More than 14 gigantic bags full of milk jugs or HDPE No. 2 plastic, for example, can be consolidated into one bale of plastic less than one-third the size of a single bag.

VCRS executive director Mollie Boyer said the equipment has come in handy over the past few months, because with a single location, more and more people are stopping by with recyclables.

"We've doubled our volume," Boyer said, adding that the group has tracked the number of people who drop off recycling each Saturday over the past year, but not over the duration of the One-Stop recycling events. "We're going to assume we've got a wider participation in numbers -- it's hard to know exactly when they really started [recycling]."

About 200 cars stop each Saturday, Boyer said, and last Saturday the group was running a few above the average midway through the 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. recycling event. Volunteer Coordinator Teslin Phillips said the numbers may have been up because the recycling center will be closed for two consecutive weeks to enjoy the upcoming holidays with their families. Boyer said it's likely they'll see some elevated attendance after the holidays as well, both because of the increased amount of wrapping materials and other things that go along with holiday celebrations, and simply because of the closure.

"We're anticipating Jan. 10 and 17 to be really busy and we're asking people to be patient," Boyer said.

During the course of the year, Boyer said, VCRS has concentrated on three things -- education, outreach and marketing. In addition to providing more convenient volunteering opportunities for volunteers -- which number more than 400 with the group -- the new location off the Palmer-Wasilla Highway near the Mat-Su Borough Central Landfill provides easy access for some local businesses and agencies to recycle their materials.

Although the recycling bins are only open to the public on Saturday, Boyer said the group now has about 10 business and government clients who drop materials by the facility during the week. One of those, she said, is the Mat-Su Borough, which offloads several tons of office paper and other materials each month.

The new location, near the landfill, also makes it a convenient stop for children taking field trips.

Barrie Blackman-Green, a kindergarten and first-grade teacher at Meadow Lakes Elementary, was recently with a group that toured the facility. Blackman-Green said she and other Meadow Lakes teachers are proponents of recycling and she's been recycling in her classroom for years, but this was the first year her students were able to put it all together. Her students, she said, have been learning about waste management -- what happens at a landfill, where the garbage goes and more. To wrap up the section, they toured the recycling center and then the landfill -- a pairing Blackman-Green said was very complementary.

"They all took [the classroom] bags of stuff to recycle and put them in the containers," Blackman-Green said. "And they got to see where it's used."

Part of the educational tour VCRS has developed, Boyer said, shows the students what raw materials go into the production of manufactured products such as pop bottles, light bulbs and other materials, and what those products can be turned into if reused or recycled.

"It was a really good eye-opener, and it also caused a lot of my kids to go home and nag their parents about what they're throwing away," Blackman-Green said. "The kids had a great time -- they're still talking about it."

Boyer said VCRS, through donations from some of the volunteer groups they work with, have been able to purchase curriculum geared toward grades 4 through 8, which they check out to schools, homeschool groups or youth organizations.

The curriculum fulfills part of VCRS's education and outreach efforts, and Boyer said the recent development of their long-range plan will allow the group to move forward on the marketing end. VCRS's board of directors, she said, are in the midst of a telephone fund drive, working to secure operating funds for the upcoming year. The group has begun to request a $2 donation from recyclers, she said -- something they hadn't done in the past, but that helps tremendously with paying for the lease, lights and three-phase power needed to run the facility.

Cutting transportation costs and using the baler, Boyer added, allows the organization to handle larger amounts of materials and, thereby, to market it more effectively. VCRS's operating costs are a little more than $100,000 this year, Boyer said, and through several methods, they were able to find revenue to offset all those costs.

If there was a theme for 2003, it would be that the group is growing toward growth -- everything done this year and in the next three years before the group plans to move into its new facility will allow them to fit the facility once it opens, Boyer said.

"Our community has so much to be proud of, because we are, as a community, leading the way for recycling in Alaska," Boyer said.