ROAD TO RECYCLING: Expansion of Willow conservation effort follows borough trend

WILLOW — Fran Lynch often wears many hats in Willow, but a feather in her recycling cap is pretty prominent these days.

Along with being the director of the Willow community food pantry and serving in the rebuild effort after last year’s devastating Sockeye Fire — among other projects — Lynch has been a stalwart supporter of recycling.

After years of false starts with various recycling efforts, the community now has two dedicated “roll-off” bins that contain six compartments for everything from plastic to aluminum cans and cardboard. The recycling center also is now open two days a month.

Willow’s recycling growth joins Big Lake and Talkeetna’s recent expansion efforts. That’s due in part to increased capacity at Valley Community for Recycling’s complex in Palmer, which can now handle the added volume. VCRS executive director Mollie Boyer said the facility’s bailer, part of a $5 million expansion that debuted in 2014, now generates five-times the recycling output with the same staff.

“Willow, Talkeetna, Big Lake — they all are doing really well,” Boyer said. “Sutton and the Butte are getting close, too.”

Willow’s growth also has come from a grassroots volunteer effort coupled with Mat-Su Borough, community council and nonprofit partnerships, Lynch said.

“There had been various recycling efforts started in Willow over the past 10 years,” said Lynch, a 20-year resident of the Parks Highway community. “But they would run out of steam, either with volunteers or they would lose a source of transportation to get things in (to Palmer.)”

Lynch said things began to come together a couple of years ago, when a steering committee was formed and some seed money received from a local benefactor.

“From there we started once a month at the transfer site,” she said. “People brought their stuff and we had a trailer and some canvas bags from VCRS — it was pretty much just plastics at that point. Volunteers had to haul it into the VCRS transfer site, usually on that Saturday.”

Lynch said the group knew at the time that VCRS and the borough were working on a recycling program. The group worked with borough solid waste manager Butch Shapiro and talked to recycling groups in Talkeetna and Big Lake to get ideas.

“Our volunteer base continued to grow and we were able to work with WACO (the Willow Area Community Organization) to get a $10,000 grant for our first bin that the borough made available to be refitted,” Lynch said. Those containers are taken to Palmer.

“We got the first bin, and there was great excitement, but we still weren’t taking anything else (but plastics) and were still open one day a month,” she said, “but the volunteers were excited because they didn’t have to haul it in.”

Taking the transportation piece away led to more volunteers at that point, she said.

Armed with a new bin and more volunteers, Lynch said the group went to WACO to become a standing committee. They were then able to approach the Mat-Su Health Foundation to ask for a grant to get a second roll-off bin, a platform stand for the containers and educational materials. That grant totaled $15,000.

Now with two roll-off bins that hold six compartments, the Willow site can accept plastics No. 1, 2 and 5 along with stretch plastic, mixed paper, office paper, aluminum and steel cans and flat, corrugated cardboard. The site is open on the second Saturday and last Tuesday of every month from 11 a.m. until 1:30 p.m.

“We are also taking phone books this month,” Lynch said.

Offering a broader option of recyclables accepted is boosting the interest, Lynch said, adding that some 40 to 50 households have been using the site, up from 20 prior to the expansion.

“People are able to get rid of recyclables twice a month, and not having to drive it in has increased the usage,” Lynch said.

Reducing what goes in the landfill is lowering household costs as well, she said, adding that the recent hike in borough landfill rates has added to the recycling effort.

“I fully understand the borough having to go up on those rates,” Lynch said, “but, if you recycle everything you can, then what is left to go into the transfer site dumps is a lot less. Folks are saving money.

“And, if we are going to be responsible people and stewards of the environment, there’s that whole angle, too.”

Contact reporter Steven Merritt at 352-2269 or steven.merritt@frontiersman.com