Transport fees smash glass-recycling program

June 21, 2005

DAWN DE BUSK/Frontiersman reporter

MAT-SU - Transportation fees that will be charged by the Anchorage-based business using recycled glass will soon bring the glass-recycling program in the Valley to a halt, according to Valley Community for Recycling Solutions.

July 9 will be the last Saturday Valley residents can dump those recyclables into wooden bins set up at VCRS, located on N. 49th Street, according to Mollie Boyer, VCRS director.

The out-of control costs of fuel, insurance and trucks have forced Polar Supply to end its relationship with VCRS, Polar Supply's sales manager said Monday.

"Polar's been eating it for quite a while. When you look at it from a business point of view, you can't send trucks around the Valley without a cost involved," Dave Shooner said.

Polar Supply gathers recycled glass and grinds it into a media-blasting product at its glass plant, according to Shooner. The company manufactures sand-blasting material, which is sprayed on heavy equipment during the pre-paint process of removing old paint and rust, he

said.

The relationship between Polar and VCRS lasted for a couple of years, when locals were offered a nearby place to recycle glass.

Polar employees handled the glass, picking up between five and 10 tons a month. Those employees had to leave work early to move the recyclables from the Valley bins to the glass plant in Anchorage.

"We're just taking a few necessary steps to survive as a company. You can't have an operation that's losing money," Shooner said, adding that the media-blasting manufacturing is only a small part of what Polar Supply does.

Boyer has been trying to encourage a local business to find a creative and financially feasible method of using recycled glass. The recycling center also hopes to solicit Valley residents' ideas about products that have been made from recycled glass and whether those ideas would work in Mat-Su.

In Juneau, a glass plant was manufacturing a road product and selling it to the Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities, Shooner said. He said he heard Alaskans for Litter Prevention & Recycling was looking into doing that in Southcentral.

As the case was in the past, Valley residents who choose to recycle glass must take a trip to Anchorage to drop off their glass. Some of the sites accepting glass include Brown Jug Warehouse, Northway Mall and the Anchorage recycling center on Rosewood Street off Dowling Road between the Old Seward and New Seward highways.

"We didn't want to stop anyone's recycling efforts," Shooner said.

Contact Dawn De Busk at 352-2252, or dawn.debusk@

frontiersman.com.