Glass Recycling Coming to Matanuska-Susitna Borough, AK

SEATTLE (Waste Advantage): For the first time in nearly two decades, glass recycling is coming to Mat-Su. The Valley Community for Recycling Solutions center near the Matanuska-Susitna Borough Central Landfill in Palmer will begin accepting glass in June, officials there said. All types and colors of glass will be accepted, and labels do not need to be removed before drop-off, borough officials said.

“The community really wants glass collection,” Borough Solid Waste Manager Jeff Smith said at a Mat-Su Assembly meeting early this month. “They talk about it all the time, so this is a pretty exciting thing for them.”  Recycled glass will be pulverized into fine sand using a $185,000 machine newly purchased by the borough from New York-based Andela Products and expected to arrive in Alaska by May, officials said. The sand will be available for purchase at the recycling center for use in road traction, in concrete, for landscaping or combined with compost, Smith said.

Other materials dropped off at the recycling center – including cardboard, paper, plastics and aluminum – are sold to buyers and shipped out of state, said Tamara Boeve, executive director for the Valley Community for Recycling Solutions, which oversees recycling collection in Mat-Su. The organization stopped accepting glass in 2008 because its weight made transporting it to Anchorage or out of state too expensive and the borough lacked a local processing option, longtime employees there said.

Courtesy: www.wasteadvantagemag.com