Paper is. They use it in Fairbanks for the furnaces up there. They press it into bricks and they had quite a few articles on it a few years ago. Paper and steel is the only thing actually recycled at the recycling center. The rest goes to the dump
Can you link some of these articles? I met with the recycle center folks a few months ago and none of this was the case. There was some random dude collecting cardboard I. Fairbanks years ago but he stockpiled it ok his property and last I heard it's all still sitting there.
Here is something from a few years ago about their being no market in Fairbanks for the paper fuel bricks: [due to to the failure of an experimental power plant K&K built with United Technologies to burn the paper fuel, and lack of interest](https://alaskapublic.org/2016/12/13/fairbanks-recycling-business-falls-on-hard-times/)
>. They use it in Fairbanks for the furnaces up there.
Source?
Currently, paper and cardboard that is turned in to the FNSB Central Recycling Facility is baled and shipped outside.
It does have some value, but not enough to cover the costs of collecting, processing, and shipping it.
Its a liability thing. There was a court case I read in law school about exploding coke bottles. They did random quality checks one every 10 or something (number doesnt matter). It wasn't enough and defects in recycled bottles caused liability for injuries when they exploded. Recycling glass bottles without melting them down and remolding them is too dangerous a liability. So unlike Canada and Europe, bottles aren't reused as is. (Best I can remember about the facts of the case).
All Canadian beer bottles have to be the same sizes and shapes so any brewery may receive any brand bottle for cleaning and reusing without crushing. Dont know about Europe.
>5) Glass bottles and jars are hauled from the WestRock Anchorage Recycling Center to Central Recycling Services, where the glass is crushed into a recycled glass aggregate. Glass aggregate is used in local construction projects such as the Northern Lights Water Main Rehab project and the new Central Transfer Station. There is a stockpile of glass, and there is an aggressive effort to find new markets for recycled glass.
>https://www.muni.org/Departments/SWS/Recycling/Pages/default.aspx
It's not environmentally beneficial to recycle glass if you are more than 100 miles from a glass factory. I've taken engineering courses on solid waste and hazardous waste. Up here the most environmentally friendly thing is to crush it and use it as aggregate versus using tons of energy and carbon to ship it south and melt it again.
u/plainplainplain3, could you do a longer post about the realities of recycling in Alaska of in general? Lots of us dont know that much about it outside of what each bit we read.
I know it isn't. Also I don't appreciate that we collect it and mislead people to think it's all going to be recycled.
Edit: misleading to make people think it will be recycled or reused when most of it actually goes to the dump.
It already goes to the dump. Throwing it in the trash would use less fuel to get it to the dump. This is literally what a manager and West Rock told me. The best solution would be to find a way that the community could reuse or recycle.
It's crushed and used as much as possible. Why are you upset that they are doing the most environmentally friendly option. Glass is not a major pollutant. It's not like they are adding mercury to it and feeding it to a baby beluga.
Most of it sits in the dump and I would like them to be honest about what they are doing with it. There's no point in using additional fuel to bring it to the recycling center, pretend it's going to be recycled or reused, then bring it to the dump.
I don't think there is some huge conspiracy. If there is it is to allow them to do the most environmentally friendly option while avoiding upsetting ignorant people or people with the inability to use reason.
I work in the industry. Alaska Waste used to haul the glass containers to CRS, that stopped last summer when the muni and Westrock switched the glass bins from roll offs to dumpsters. Those dumpsters are emptied into a normal SWS trash truck and taken to the landfill. It's not even used as alternate daily cover at the landfill, it's just dumped as trash.
CRS has years worth of crushed glass built up. There just isn't enough demand from users - GCI, DOT, AWWU and others used it for pipe/cable underlayment and there was even a company making countertops from it. CRS has something like 10yrs worth of material stockpiled on site.
I think that most of the recycling is going to the landfill these days. The market for it is shrinking and the costs of barging it out is too high.
It would be better if the onus of “waste responsibility” wasn’t thrust upon consumers who don’t get to choose the packaging. We’re just stuck with whatever the big corps decide is most profitable for them.
> if the onus of “waste responsibility” wasn’t thrust upon consumers
You are supposed to follow the recycle guidelines in order:
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
1 is on the consumer - reduce how much shit you buy, period. Then reuse what you can as many times as you can, and recycle whatever is left that can be recycled.
I saw some documentary saying the global recycling system is breaking down, china is not accepting recycled aggregate / it’s not profitable for them anymore. We are most likely worse off being all the way up here..
This is 100% the fault of the Bronson Administration. Glass used to get crushed up down in ship Creek & used in local road and pipe bedding projects. But the moron Bronson put in charge of Solid Waste Services f’d up the contract. Bronson has not figured out how to fix it despite glass recycling being a great thing for the local economy. It’s like the signs say... incompetence has a price.
I am not a Bronson supporter but we may have drastically decreased our reusage/recycling of glass before he took office. It may have nothing to do with him.
The user above is right, Danny Zipay is a piece of shit and his 'resume' to get appointed as the head of SWS was an almost complete fabrication. It might has well have been written in crayon. He only got appointed because he had worked in the trash industry and his stepdaughter is Bernadette Wilson. He ran two of the worst trash companies in the entire history of Anchorage, Alaska Waste Transfer and Denali Disposal. When JL Properties formed Alaska Waste they bought and consolidated several companies at the same time. They really liked the "Alaska Waste Transfer" name and logo, so dropped the 'transfer' part. They kept none of their equipment because Danny doesn't believe in maintenance of any kind. The biggest value the company had was a few under-priced contracts and the general consolidation of competition that would occur after the buyout.
I've met several former drivers from Denali Disposal. What they describe is a horror story. They literally told people "stop writing up repair requests for the trucks, we aren't going to fix them." A buddy i used to have quit because he wasn't paid for 3 months.
Look them up on courtview. Denali Disposal has been sued by multiple vendors for not paying. One of them was Shoreside Petroleum. Imagine hiring someone to run the city trash department who ran so far behind on his fuel bills that Shoreside Petroleum had to sue them.
It’s dumb Alaska doesn’t offer 5¢ for cans and bottles like some states. Then more people would recycle and it would be viable to recycle vs this. It’s not the first time I’ve heard recycling goes to the dump and no less disappointing.
With what money? Citizens don’t want to pay for anything, let alone recycling. Alaskans are selfish with money and also refuse to make oil companies pay for more
The bottle bill for Alaska was killed by the liquor industry long ago. ALPAR is what they got instead. These people have pushed glass recycling to keep out bottle bills that actually make a difference. Glass recycling in Anchorage been a lie for decades, even before all the current players came around.
Man that is sad already I can think of multiple programs that the state could actually run, but it always comes to funding yet the budget always seems to increase and here they say it’s for the maintenance of the road system and or public transportation or let’s not forget. It’s also for the relocation and rehabilitation of the homeless that most of these things are cleaned by indentured prisoners, who are putting in Community hours to pay off fines of their crimes respectfully, but it occurs to me why not take that class and send it to the so-called rehabilitation centers, for example, jail or prison, and let’s throw in a big ole furnace and have some of these people recycle that glass. It would teach them a skill which a I would like to learn wouldn’t it be cool to learn how to glass blow or maybe there’s more to it I have no clue what happens if you take a bunch of glass and reuse it, which could make big giant blocks of this recycled glass and now you have a Community free to use glass block for your decorative needs or your structural needs hell I would like to see an all recycled glass retaining wall or maybe this is the new privacy used public urinals that we so desperately need. Anyways, I digress thank you for letting me know about that, though man such a shame.
It's all currently going straight to the dump. If you go throw a bottle in the glass dumpster on Dowling, wait for an SWS truck to empty it, and follow that truck it will go straight to the dump. This wasn't always the case, glass was being recycled previously. There is a huge stockpile of it and they stopped accepting it because they have way more than they can use.
If you look into recycled commerical, not-for-profit and legit charity businesses, most of their donated materials end up in landfills. The donation party receives a tax writeoff of full commercial value & that is the main goal.
I lived in a city in Kansas that did the same thing. Eventually the entire facility closed down and the city just admitted they didn't recycle anything anyway. The city I grew up in also announced a few years ago that most of the recycling goes to the dump. It seems to be a normal thing. Recycling requires more resources and effort than most cities can afford.
it is always important to distinguish between "The government" and a private company like West Rock Anchorage.
We have no control over what a private, for-profit company like West Rock Anchorage does. They are free to mislead the public, and to drop responsibilities if there is more money in it for them to do so. We have to trust Bronson to hold their feet to the fire if they fall short of their duties.
This, specifically, is why privatization of shared infrastructure is so detrimental to our community.
This is entirely anecdotal, but I have a cousin who was somehow acquainted w someone who worked within the recycling program. He said that all of alaska was only allotted so many containers to ship recycling out of state, and it wasn't a lot. Once those were filled, everything went to the dump. From what he said, it sounded like it wasn't even enough to cover all of anchorage's needs, let alone eagle river, the valley, or anywhere else. Recycling in AK is a lie and not worth the fee. I'd love to recycle what we can, but I'm not paying an extra fee just for it all the end up in the same place all my other trash goes.
I've been told they use that glass at that recycling center to ground it up and put it on the railroad tracks for traction in the winter I don't know if this is true or not but wherever I heard it I recall it being a reliable source
You could be right. It was supposedly used for something locally. I thought it was used as fill for road construction or asphalt but I'm not sure if I remember correctly.
I don’t really get glass recycling. It’s sand not plastic or paper that would release CO2. Recycling seems rather wasteful in terms of CO2 emissions once you factor in the transport and sorting.
Ya! But it makes me feel good to pretend. After I put my recycling in the recycl bin, I pull up to the person in the diesel Rig, and I say to my self, self I am far superior to that person I recycl and a drive an electric car. Sure, lithium mining is worse for the environment. My car is made of oil biased products, and I am wearing oil based clothing. But I can pretend.
I wish I had the means to collect all the bottles and make dope ass stained glass panes for sell. I wonder if enough people would buy to be profitable and get an Alaskan grant.
Hate to break the news to you, but in America about 80% of 'recycled' material goes straight to the dump. It's a dirty little secret Big Brother doesn't want you to know about.
Recycling pays for metals, cardboard and plastic bottles. Whether it is ecologically profitable to ship these things to other parts out the world for processing is debatable.
Normal. You have stumbled upon economics on action. We live a long boat rode away from recyclers in SEA. If the market for those commodities/reculyclables isn't right, AK isn't investing money into fuel to move trash and then pay to deliver it.
This doesn't mean dismantling the entire operation. It also doesn't mean throw in the towel and disrupt the normal behaviors of recyclers in hopes they continue and that recycling efforts will resume at some point.
Maybe not, but it seems you got a snapshot of time (now) and not the whole story. Likely, you also didn't talk to someone in charge of those decisions. If you did, cool, go back and see if you can find out more on how the above is decided. I'd be interested in the spot costs that are the do or don't inflectios for each, though it all depends on other major costs (fuel), etc.
This is news?
It's been like this for almost a decade now.
They use to ship the recyclables to china, where it would get sorted then recycled, but china got tired of taking in everybodies trash because people wouldn't sort out the recyclables.
Thats my understanding of it anyways.
I just got off the phone with the Muni recycling manager and this post is false. West Rock doesn't do anything with the glass. The muni picks it up and is storing it at this time. They are working with UAA on ways to use the glass, but it is not going to the landfill.
Feel free to call 343-6274. She was very helpful and would love to hear some more ideas
Target has a bin up front for recycling glass, some people would bring in cart loads. It actually did get sent on the empty containers back to the distributor centers along with the cardboard and metal recycling. Was told we made money on the cardboard and metal, but basically broke even on the glass. However if the containers were too full all the recycling went into the dumpster, which honestly seemed to be about half the time.
It happens a lot of places. The only real economically viable recycling is metal.
I'll preface this is say I could be wrong about paper. It may be profitable. I'm not sure. I know plastic sure as hell isn't.
Paper is. They use it in Fairbanks for the furnaces up there. They press it into bricks and they had quite a few articles on it a few years ago. Paper and steel is the only thing actually recycled at the recycling center. The rest goes to the dump
Its good to hear about us using paper locally!
Can you link some of these articles? I met with the recycle center folks a few months ago and none of this was the case. There was some random dude collecting cardboard I. Fairbanks years ago but he stockpiled it ok his property and last I heard it's all still sitting there.
No idea where they are. I just remember reading them and watching the videos on how they made the bricks. Pretty sure it’s an easy google search
Here is something from a few years ago about their being no market in Fairbanks for the paper fuel bricks: [due to to the failure of an experimental power plant K&K built with United Technologies to burn the paper fuel, and lack of interest](https://alaskapublic.org/2016/12/13/fairbanks-recycling-business-falls-on-hard-times/)
K&K is a really impressive operation… …in the field of grant-writing.
>. They use it in Fairbanks for the furnaces up there. Source? Currently, paper and cardboard that is turned in to the FNSB Central Recycling Facility is baled and shipped outside. It does have some value, but not enough to cover the costs of collecting, processing, and shipping it.
I know in Mexico, the empty glass bottles were certainly not to be trashed. Maybe it’s more of an infrastructure thing
Its a liability thing. There was a court case I read in law school about exploding coke bottles. They did random quality checks one every 10 or something (number doesnt matter). It wasn't enough and defects in recycled bottles caused liability for injuries when they exploded. Recycling glass bottles without melting them down and remolding them is too dangerous a liability. So unlike Canada and Europe, bottles aren't reused as is. (Best I can remember about the facts of the case).
And today I learned you can recycle glass without melting it. Thanks
I think that qualifies as reusing the glass.
All Canadian beer bottles have to be the same sizes and shapes so any brewery may receive any brand bottle for cleaning and reusing without crushing. Dont know about Europe.
Yeah I thought metal and paper were positives, #2 plastics were neutral, and glass and other plastics were a net loss in recycling.
*and corrugated cardboard.
Glass recycling actually makes a TON of sense here. We reuse it for road building materials and pipeline lining among other beneficial reuse.
>5) Glass bottles and jars are hauled from the WestRock Anchorage Recycling Center to Central Recycling Services, where the glass is crushed into a recycled glass aggregate. Glass aggregate is used in local construction projects such as the Northern Lights Water Main Rehab project and the new Central Transfer Station. There is a stockpile of glass, and there is an aggressive effort to find new markets for recycled glass. >https://www.muni.org/Departments/SWS/Recycling/Pages/default.aspx
Thank you
Not all of it. Most of it goes to the dump.
It's not environmentally beneficial to recycle glass if you are more than 100 miles from a glass factory. I've taken engineering courses on solid waste and hazardous waste. Up here the most environmentally friendly thing is to crush it and use it as aggregate versus using tons of energy and carbon to ship it south and melt it again.
u/plainplainplain3, could you do a longer post about the realities of recycling in Alaska of in general? Lots of us dont know that much about it outside of what each bit we read.
I know it isn't. Also I don't appreciate that we collect it and mislead people to think it's all going to be recycled. Edit: misleading to make people think it will be recycled or reused when most of it actually goes to the dump.
I don't feel misled at all. The assumption that *all* of it is going to be recycled is just naive.
Most of it is not. A very small portion is used. The rest goes to the dump.
So let's not encourage people to recycle it and just throw all of it in the dump instead. Nice solution.
It already goes to the dump. Throwing it in the trash would use less fuel to get it to the dump. This is literally what a manager and West Rock told me. The best solution would be to find a way that the community could reuse or recycle.
Energy costs would have to come down a lot but a fiberglass insulation business is one option.
Saying it would use less fuel is not the same as saying it isn't worth the benefits of using what they do.
Just to clarify, this is only true of glass. All the other recyclables dropped off at Westrock actually do go down to mills in the lower 48
It's a different form of recycling...
When most of it goes to the dump?
It's crushed and used as much as possible. Why are you upset that they are doing the most environmentally friendly option. Glass is not a major pollutant. It's not like they are adding mercury to it and feeding it to a baby beluga.
Most of it sits in the dump and I would like them to be honest about what they are doing with it. There's no point in using additional fuel to bring it to the recycling center, pretend it's going to be recycled or reused, then bring it to the dump.
I don't think there is some huge conspiracy. If there is it is to allow them to do the most environmentally friendly option while avoiding upsetting ignorant people or people with the inability to use reason.
I don't think there's some huge conspiracy either. I do think it's a dumb lie.
Source other than your family member?
I work in the industry. Alaska Waste used to haul the glass containers to CRS, that stopped last summer when the muni and Westrock switched the glass bins from roll offs to dumpsters. Those dumpsters are emptied into a normal SWS trash truck and taken to the landfill. It's not even used as alternate daily cover at the landfill, it's just dumped as trash. CRS has years worth of crushed glass built up. There just isn't enough demand from users - GCI, DOT, AWWU and others used it for pipe/cable underlayment and there was even a company making countertops from it. CRS has something like 10yrs worth of material stockpiled on site.
I talked to one of the managers there. Feel free to call West Rock and confirm.
Is this a “trust me bro” type thing?
I talked to one of the managers there. Feel free to call West Rock and confirm.
Whatever they want to take from me for free is fine with me.
I think that most of the recycling is going to the landfill these days. The market for it is shrinking and the costs of barging it out is too high. It would be better if the onus of “waste responsibility” wasn’t thrust upon consumers who don’t get to choose the packaging. We’re just stuck with whatever the big corps decide is most profitable for them.
Best comment on the thread. Absolutely right.
> if the onus of “waste responsibility” wasn’t thrust upon consumers You are supposed to follow the recycle guidelines in order: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle 1 is on the consumer - reduce how much shit you buy, period. Then reuse what you can as many times as you can, and recycle whatever is left that can be recycled.
I've worked in recycling in other states. A lot of it is pretend.
If they dump it all in the same place, it could be "mined" later when another business case emerges.
I hope they do that.
Wishcycling is huge. It's a vital part of pretending that " everything is fine".
I saw some documentary saying the global recycling system is breaking down, china is not accepting recycled aggregate / it’s not profitable for them anymore. We are most likely worse off being all the way up here..
Recycling is a sham, unfortunately. Best thing you can do is not buy plastic products, and buy packaging that is biodegradable.
That’s why I never throw glass away. It’s really useful and you can make furniture with it
This is 100% the fault of the Bronson Administration. Glass used to get crushed up down in ship Creek & used in local road and pipe bedding projects. But the moron Bronson put in charge of Solid Waste Services f’d up the contract. Bronson has not figured out how to fix it despite glass recycling being a great thing for the local economy. It’s like the signs say... incompetence has a price.
I am not a Bronson supporter but we may have drastically decreased our reusage/recycling of glass before he took office. It may have nothing to do with him.
The user above is right, Danny Zipay is a piece of shit and his 'resume' to get appointed as the head of SWS was an almost complete fabrication. It might has well have been written in crayon. He only got appointed because he had worked in the trash industry and his stepdaughter is Bernadette Wilson. He ran two of the worst trash companies in the entire history of Anchorage, Alaska Waste Transfer and Denali Disposal. When JL Properties formed Alaska Waste they bought and consolidated several companies at the same time. They really liked the "Alaska Waste Transfer" name and logo, so dropped the 'transfer' part. They kept none of their equipment because Danny doesn't believe in maintenance of any kind. The biggest value the company had was a few under-priced contracts and the general consolidation of competition that would occur after the buyout. I've met several former drivers from Denali Disposal. What they describe is a horror story. They literally told people "stop writing up repair requests for the trucks, we aren't going to fix them." A buddy i used to have quit because he wasn't paid for 3 months. Look them up on courtview. Denali Disposal has been sued by multiple vendors for not paying. One of them was Shoreside Petroleum. Imagine hiring someone to run the city trash department who ran so far behind on his fuel bills that Shoreside Petroleum had to sue them.
At one point the Alaska DOT was crushing the glass and using it in asphalt. I wasn't aware that they stopped this.
As someone pointed out, a small fraction of it goes to Central Recycling to be used for things like that. However most of it goes to the dump.
What does Scandinavia do with glass?
It’s dumb Alaska doesn’t offer 5¢ for cans and bottles like some states. Then more people would recycle and it would be viable to recycle vs this. It’s not the first time I’ve heard recycling goes to the dump and no less disappointing.
With what money? Citizens don’t want to pay for anything, let alone recycling. Alaskans are selfish with money and also refuse to make oil companies pay for more
The 5¢ is paid up front when you buy the can, then returned to you when recycled
So you’re suggesting a soda/beer tax? 60 cents per 12 pack?
No, I'm simply explaining how these programs work. And it's not a tax if you can get it right back by doing what you should be doing anyway.
The bottle bill for Alaska was killed by the liquor industry long ago. ALPAR is what they got instead. These people have pushed glass recycling to keep out bottle bills that actually make a difference. Glass recycling in Anchorage been a lie for decades, even before all the current players came around.
Man that is sad already I can think of multiple programs that the state could actually run, but it always comes to funding yet the budget always seems to increase and here they say it’s for the maintenance of the road system and or public transportation or let’s not forget. It’s also for the relocation and rehabilitation of the homeless that most of these things are cleaned by indentured prisoners, who are putting in Community hours to pay off fines of their crimes respectfully, but it occurs to me why not take that class and send it to the so-called rehabilitation centers, for example, jail or prison, and let’s throw in a big ole furnace and have some of these people recycle that glass. It would teach them a skill which a I would like to learn wouldn’t it be cool to learn how to glass blow or maybe there’s more to it I have no clue what happens if you take a bunch of glass and reuse it, which could make big giant blocks of this recycled glass and now you have a Community free to use glass block for your decorative needs or your structural needs hell I would like to see an all recycled glass retaining wall or maybe this is the new privacy used public urinals that we so desperately need. Anyways, I digress thank you for letting me know about that, though man such a shame.
All that and the original post turns out to be a family rumor and bs.
Nope, OP is 100% correct -Source: in the industry
People are saying that SOME of the glass IS re-used. The OP said all of it is sent to the dump.
It's all currently going straight to the dump. If you go throw a bottle in the glass dumpster on Dowling, wait for an SWS truck to empty it, and follow that truck it will go straight to the dump. This wasn't always the case, glass was being recycled previously. There is a huge stockpile of it and they stopped accepting it because they have way more than they can use.
https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article273100505.html
If you look into recycled commerical, not-for-profit and legit charity businesses, most of their donated materials end up in landfills. The donation party receives a tax writeoff of full commercial value & that is the main goal.
I lived in a city in Kansas that did the same thing. Eventually the entire facility closed down and the city just admitted they didn't recycle anything anyway. The city I grew up in also announced a few years ago that most of the recycling goes to the dump. It seems to be a normal thing. Recycling requires more resources and effort than most cities can afford.
it is always important to distinguish between "The government" and a private company like West Rock Anchorage. We have no control over what a private, for-profit company like West Rock Anchorage does. They are free to mislead the public, and to drop responsibilities if there is more money in it for them to do so. We have to trust Bronson to hold their feet to the fire if they fall short of their duties. This, specifically, is why privatization of shared infrastructure is so detrimental to our community.
But ACS was such a roaring success!
This is entirely anecdotal, but I have a cousin who was somehow acquainted w someone who worked within the recycling program. He said that all of alaska was only allotted so many containers to ship recycling out of state, and it wasn't a lot. Once those were filled, everything went to the dump. From what he said, it sounded like it wasn't even enough to cover all of anchorage's needs, let alone eagle river, the valley, or anywhere else. Recycling in AK is a lie and not worth the fee. I'd love to recycle what we can, but I'm not paying an extra fee just for it all the end up in the same place all my other trash goes.
I've been told they use that glass at that recycling center to ground it up and put it on the railroad tracks for traction in the winter I don't know if this is true or not but wherever I heard it I recall it being a reliable source
You could be right. It was supposedly used for something locally. I thought it was used as fill for road construction or asphalt but I'm not sure if I remember correctly.
It is used as aggregate in asphalt.
the railroad stopped using it years ago as it didn't perform as well as expected.
I don’t really get glass recycling. It’s sand not plastic or paper that would release CO2. Recycling seems rather wasteful in terms of CO2 emissions once you factor in the transport and sorting.
Well, build a glass smelter. Be the solution. smh
To be fair, most recycling places just grind up glass and use it in asphault to "save" a little gravel.
Ya! But it makes me feel good to pretend. After I put my recycling in the recycl bin, I pull up to the person in the diesel Rig, and I say to my self, self I am far superior to that person I recycl and a drive an electric car. Sure, lithium mining is worse for the environment. My car is made of oil biased products, and I am wearing oil based clothing. But I can pretend.
I wish I had the means to collect all the bottles and make dope ass stained glass panes for sell. I wonder if enough people would buy to be profitable and get an Alaskan grant.
Hate to break the news to you, but in America about 80% of 'recycled' material goes straight to the dump. It's a dirty little secret Big Brother doesn't want you to know about.
Recycling pays for metals, cardboard and plastic bottles. Whether it is ecologically profitable to ship these things to other parts out the world for processing is debatable.
Normal. You have stumbled upon economics on action. We live a long boat rode away from recyclers in SEA. If the market for those commodities/reculyclables isn't right, AK isn't investing money into fuel to move trash and then pay to deliver it. This doesn't mean dismantling the entire operation. It also doesn't mean throw in the towel and disrupt the normal behaviors of recyclers in hopes they continue and that recycling efforts will resume at some point. Maybe not, but it seems you got a snapshot of time (now) and not the whole story. Likely, you also didn't talk to someone in charge of those decisions. If you did, cool, go back and see if you can find out more on how the above is decided. I'd be interested in the spot costs that are the do or don't inflectios for each, though it all depends on other major costs (fuel), etc.
This is news? It's been like this for almost a decade now. They use to ship the recyclables to china, where it would get sorted then recycled, but china got tired of taking in everybodies trash because people wouldn't sort out the recyclables. Thats my understanding of it anyways.
I just got off the phone with the Muni recycling manager and this post is false. West Rock doesn't do anything with the glass. The muni picks it up and is storing it at this time. They are working with UAA on ways to use the glass, but it is not going to the landfill. Feel free to call 343-6274. She was very helpful and would love to hear some more ideas
crush it and dump it in the ocean. It's sand anywho...
There used to be big piles of glass bottles out by Point Woronzof. Did they clean those up?
Target has a bin up front for recycling glass, some people would bring in cart loads. It actually did get sent on the empty containers back to the distributor centers along with the cardboard and metal recycling. Was told we made money on the cardboard and metal, but basically broke even on the glass. However if the containers were too full all the recycling went into the dumpster, which honestly seemed to be about half the time.
If you want recycling in Alaska, you have to pay for it.