Glass is recycled into sandblast grit in Anchorage.
ALPAR, who manages the glass drop off sites for Anchorage, closed the Northway Mall site on September 3rd. Recyclers can continue to recycle glass at the Anchorage Smurfit-Stone Recycling Center off Dowling, at the Anchorage Landfill on Hiland Road and at the Brown Jug Warehouse on Old Seward.

The site was closed as part of a larger effort to control contamination of the glass caused by illegally dumped materials that have been going into the glass. The glass plant can no longer cover the cost incurred from too much contamination.

Alaska Youth for Environmental Action (AYEA) will be hosting a kick-off event for the 2008-2009 school year. Please join the Anchorage Chapter on Thursday, September 4th, from 5:30 to 6:30pm at the National Wildlife Federation offices (750 W. 2nd Ave, Suite 200). Help shape this year’s campaign – what inspires you? Election issue activism, climate change, recycling, renewable energy, pesticides, art in action… Get involved -- join AYEA!!

For more information, visit AYEA

Come hear about curbside recycling, school recycling,
expanded drop-off sites, and other developments.

Quarterly Recycling Meeting
Tuesday, September 2
Noon-2pm
BP Energy Center
Bring your own lunch. Dessert provided.

$20 to recycle a computer system
With all of this rainy weather and the increasing fuel prices, Total Reclaim has some good news! Total Reclaim is offering to recycle residential computer systems (a complete system is a monitor, CPU, keyboard and printer) for just $20. This offer is good through September 1, 2008. Call Total Reclaim at 561-0544 for details.

Don’t forget about tomorrow’s ACS Yellow Pages Recycling Event ...  Drop off your old phone books and possibly win cash ....

Who says money doesn’t grow on trees?
Come to the Sears Mall, I decree!
It won’t take much to bag $5K in cash,
Just bring a phone book to the ACS Yellow Pages bash!

Take any old or unused phone book to the Sears Mall parking lot this Wednesday, July 23, for the ACS Yellow Pages Green is Good recycling event and ACS Yellow Pages will exchange each book for an entry to win $5,000!

Go to ASC Yellow Pages Recycling to find out more.

Molly Johnson won the June Can-Do Kid prize of a Desani mountain bike provided by Coca Cola of Anchorage. Can-Do Kids is sponsored by Alaskans for Litter Prevention and Recycling (ALPAR) and Smurfit-Stone Recycling. Started in 1984, the program is still going strong today. Can-Do Kids learn how recycling is a business as well as a positive environmental activity. Participants collect aluminum cans from their friends and neighbors and take them to the recycling center for payment. Each time they bring in cans they are entered into a monthly drawing for prizes. Lots of kids participate in Anchorage and many adults fondly remember their own Can-Do Kids business. The July prizes are a skateboard, razor scooter and IPOD Shuffle donated by ALPAR member company, Totem Ocean Trailer Express.

Downtown Street Vendor Recycling Bin The Municipality of Anchorage, Bean's Café, Green Star, and downtown food vendors have teamed up to promote recycling downtown this summer. Between June 9 and October 9, the Bean's Café "green team" will pick up plastic bottles and aluminum cans twice a week from seven bins located at various street vendor locations. The seven bins are provided by Green Star.

As a unique service offered within the Municipality, the Beans Café’s "Recycling for the Homeless" project aims to offer recycling service to the downtown core while providing stable employment to the clients of Beans Café. All proceeds earned through the recycling of the plastic and aluminum will go to the "Recycling for the Homeless" project.

This is just the beginning of the Municipality’s plan to increase public space recycling. Let us know where you think public space recycling is needed in Anchorage.

So here’s the scenario… You’re running in a race through downtown Anchorage. As you stop at the final water station, you see there are two choices – a plastic water bottle or a plastic-looking cup of water. It turns out that the plastic-looking cup is actually a corn-based cup made to degrade in a landfill over time. So which do you choose? And on what criteria do you base your decision? Is the non-petroleum-based cup better even though it’s headed for the landfill? Is the plastic bottle better because it will be recycled into other products? Are there recycling bins? Will the cup really break down? Can we compost the cup? Let us know what you think is best and why!

With all the changes going on with composting in Anchorage, why not just keep it all in your back yard? If you have the space to compost in your back yard, there are retail outlets that can help you by providing some of the tools you’ll need. Alaska Mill & Feed is just one place where you’ll find tools. Alaska Mill & Feed offers at least three different styles of composters including tumblers, free standing models, and worm bins. It also carries compost buckets for collecting food scraps in the house (only compost food waste if bears are not a problem in your area and if you have enough other material to mix with it), compost starter to activate your pile, compost forks for turning your compost, biodegradable leaf bags for collecting your raw materials, and other products to make composting easy.

A "plarn" bag is made of plastic shopping bag yarn.A summer series of three workshops will feature three “reuse and reduce” projects to spark your creativity.

Wednesdays, 6-8pm

June 11, 18, 25 – learn to make note cards by collaging with old magazines and junk mail

July 9, 16, 23 – learn to make Plarn (plastic bag yarn) shopping bags and purses

August 6, 13, 20 – learn to make waste paper bookbindings

Each workshop is $30 and is limited to just eight people so call or email now to register. The workshops are held at Unique Ways Studio, 207 E. Northern Lights Blvd., Suite 112. Contact Linda Warford, 441-4601 or Linda@warford.com or Jerelyn Miyashiro, 338-7676 or jtmiyash@ak.net for register or for directions.

Recycling gets easier with curbside collection.Alaska Waste announced yesterday that it is expanding curbside recycling service to an additional 17,000 households in Anchorage. The new areas include subdivisions on the lower hillside waste of Abbott Loop including Kempton Hills and Oceanview; the Muldoon area south of Debarr, north of Tudor and east of Boniface to the hillside; and in Eagle River south of Eagle River Road.

The service costs $6/month for a 96-gallon roll cart that is collected every other week. Residents can put cardboard, mixed paper, #1 and #2 plastic bottles and jugs, steel cans and aluminum cans in the cart. Residents will still need to deliver recyclable glass and plastic bags to a recycling drop-off location.

Garden pot recycling event: September 20 is the day to remember for recycling plastic garden pots.We told you about the September 20 ALPAR and Alaska Botanical Garden one-day pot recycling event here..
Now the Talk Dirt to Me garden blog is talking about it, and offering you a great video on how to make gardening a green-friendly hobby by reusing everyday items that make perfect seed-starter or baby-plant homes.

AYEA Summer Fund Raiser
Thursday, June 5th, 5:30-8:30 p.m.
Hilltop Ski Chalet, Anchorage hilltopskiarea.org

Teens in Alaska Youth for Environmental Action (AYEA) are hosting their tenth anniversary Summer Fund Raiser on Thursday, June 5th. For ten years, youth in AYEA have tackled recycling and waste issues, and this event continues to promote sustainability: they will host a Sustainable Silent Auction that includes things like "Office Hero Recycling Package," "Green Your Coffee Routine," "Rethink Plastics Shopping Package," "Healthy/Organic Spa Package" and much more! Even hip eco-company TerraCycle is donating items for the event!

There are several electronics recycling events taking place in Anchorage this month ---

June 4 – Nonprofit Day at Total Reclaim, 10am-4pm. Qualifying nonprofits can recycle electronics for 10 cents/lb, rather than the usual 35 cents/lb fee.

June 11 – Green Star Day at Total Reclaim, 10am-4pm. Green Star Award-certified businesses can recycle electronics for 25 cents/lb, rather than the usual 30 cents/lb discounted fee.

June 14 – Neighborhood Drop-off for Household Electronics at Service High School, 10am-3pm. Residents can drop off electronics for a flat fee per item.

The Anchorage Woodlot will open Friday, May 30th. The hours will be 9 am to 7 pm daily. This year, the woodlot will be located at the corner of C Street and 100th Avenue, just south of Dimond Blvd.

The biggest change to the woodlot that you will see is that there is now a charge: $8.00 per pickup truck load; or $6.00 per yard.

For questions about the woodlot, please contact the Anchorage Soild and Water Conservation District (ASWCD) at 907.677.SOIL.

The Anchorage Woodlot has operated for the past several years under funding provided by a federal appropriation (or earmark); however, due to recent budget constraints and increased focus on earmarks in Alaska and elsewhere, the District is implementing a self-support approach in an attempt to continue woodlot service to the community.

Eco Hot CupDark Horse Coffee has always tried to be eco-friendly, by recycling and using ceramic cups, for nearly ten years. Recycling bins on the front porch are a familiar site to anyone who frequents Dark Horse.

Now Dark Horse has taken the next step by switching all paper and plastic cups to 100% compostable Eco Hot cups and Corn plastic cups. The Eco Cup is a hot cup made of paper but unlike other hot cups, Eco Hot Cups are inner-lined with PLA, a compostable plastic derived from corn. Dark Horse also uses cold drink cups made from PLA plastic derived from corn.

Alaskans for Litter Prevention and Recycling (ALPAR) and the Alaska Botanical Garden are again teaming up to hold a nursery pot recycling event at the Garden on September 20th, 2008. Many gardeners suggested we do a fall event because so much planting happens late in the season. This event should cover the entire season.

The one-day, Saturday event will run from 10 am to 5 pm. We will again take only those pots that are Number 2, 5 and 7 (look for the chasing arrow symbol with the number on the bottom of the pot.) We realized last year that some # 2's don't have the number on the bottom. However, as long as the pot looks like the other #2's, we'll take it.

It looks like the May 20th Assembly date for addressing the community-wide recycling ordinance most likely will be moved once again to June 10th. Just trying to keep everyone on their toes!!

Thanks to the strong public support at the May 6th Assembly meeting, the ordinance supporting automated trash collection and curbside recycling in SWS' collection area was passed unanimously.

However, the ordinance supporting the numerous community-wide recycling programs, including school recycling, expanded drop-off sites, public space recycling and outreach, was postponed. This ordinance will be revisited NEXT TUESDAY, MAY 20th. Although public testimony will no longer be accepted on this issue, the ordinance still needs public support. Keep those letters, emails and phone calls com

Eagle River residents now have a convenient location to recycle scrap electronics. Tri-Digital Computer Services, at 17034 Eagle River Loop Road (above Trustworthy Hardware) is now accepting electronics for recycling. Tri-Digital has been working with Total Reclaim in Anchorage and will be accepted as a drop-off location.

The site will be open for recycling 10am - 5pm Monday through Friday, was well as 10am - 2pm on Saturday. The fees will be similar to Total Reclaim's -- $18/monitor and 35¢/lb for all other electronics -- plus a 10% handling fee. The handling fee brings the costs up to about $19.80/monitor and 38¢/lb. It's worth it for the convenience factor if you live or work in Eagle River!