Spring cleaning effort under way

May 1, 2007

By Russell Stigall

Frontiersman

MAT-SU - The Mat-Su Borough wants you to fight Valley trash.

Like mastodons or cavemen, plastic bags and pop cans have melted free from snowpiles all over the Valley.

Drive down the Glenn Highway toward Anchorage and the eye is met by a myriad of small fluttering plastic bags and the glint and glitter of broken glass and discarded metal.

With tourist season nigh and the unsightly prospect of recreational vehiclists oohing and ahhing at all the refuse Alaskans lose to the stiff winter winds, the Mat-Su Borough, with help from Valley cities and community councils, are inviting locals to grab a bag and clean the Valley's roadsides and medians.

Vera Hershey, clean-up day organizer for Tanaina Community Council, said the annual clean up is a regular part of her community's life.

&#8220We've had it so many years in a row, people just sort of look forward to it,” Hershey said.

Hershey said her community is very clean, but that visitors do trash the roads.

&#8220Living where we do, we get a lot of people driving through the area or coming in and camping, and they throw things along the side of the road. We'd like to clean that up,” Hershey said.

In the five years that Hershey has been doing the spring cleanup, she said she hasn't seen much of a change in the amount of litter.

&#8220People are still freely littering in this area,” Hershey said.

Even though the litter is noticeable, Hershey said that from the road it is hard to notice just how bad it is.

&#8220Not until you get down in the ditches do you see how much bottles and bags there are,” Hershey said, naming little bottles of liquor and empty food and drinking containers as most common.

Tanaina also brings out a Dumpster For bigger items, like sofas and old bicycles, anything too big for the orange bags.

Hershey said her community still gets a modest turnout for clean-up days. Two people, Hershey and Darlene Mielke, clean a three-mile stretch Northwest of Wasilla along North Sushana down to Schrock Road. Others in the community pick up the areas near their homes, Hershey said.

&#8220We really take pride in having every little speck picked up. We hope that it rubs off on other areas.”

Hershey said that tourists visiting would not think highly of the current state of the Valley's roadsides.

&#8220They would just be mortified and think that we are slobs,” Hershey said.

Sometimes it is not what flutters out the back window of a car that litters the pristine views of the Valley, it is the cars themselves.

Whether up on blocks in the garage or dead in the driveway, defunct automobiles pose a problem to both their owners and the health of the Valley.

So instead of towing that old heap to the nearest riverbed or dead-end dirt road, residents can give the Central Mat-Su landfill a call and have staff there drag that lemon away for free.

The landfill took over the annual &#8220Bumper Drag” from the National Guard. Goodale said that due to the Guard's heavy deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan, the landfill needed to step in and maintain the important service.

Along with old vehicles, Valley residents can also dispose of their unwanted scrap metal and appliances, except refrigerators and freezers.

On any normal day, the landfill charges $30 to dispose of a car and $50 per ton to dispose of scrap metal. During the Bumper Drag, disposal of these items is free. If needed, the landfill will send out a tow truck to pick up derelict cars for $60.

The Bumper Drag will take place June 1, from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and June 2 and 3, from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Central landfill is located at 1201 49th State Street, off the Palmer-Wasilla Highway.

For more information about the Bumper Drag program, people may call 746-2823.

Contact Russell Stigall at 352-2267 or russell.stigall@frontiersman.com