Anchorage's Solid Waste Services is turning its old transfer station into a new recycling center and opening a new wood lot.
Anchorage’s Solid Waste Services new pilot program aims to keep plastics and organics out of the landfillPublished: Jun. 28, 2024 at 12:59 PM AKDTANCHORAGE, Alaska - When Anchorage’s Midtown Transfer Station moved across the street into a brand new facility, it left behind the old transfer station and administrative offices.
Now, both buildings have new functions, the administrative office is a homeless shelter, and the tipping floor of the former transfer station has become a place to drop off organic material., and a new purpose: to divert both plastics and organics from the landfill and turn them into something useful. It’s a pilot program that is set to run through the end of October. Residents and commercial companies can drop off things like grass clippings, small yard debris, and other organics at a cost of $20 per truckload or $40 for a truck and trailer load. A bin outside the facility accepts food scraps for free. Acting Solid Waste Services Director Kelli Toth said the organic material will be trucked to a farm in Palmer that makes topsoil and compost, a better fit, she said, than putting them in the landfill. “Putting food scraps and organics into the landfill creates a lot of landfill gas, and it also generates a lot of leachate, and it also takes up space in the landfill,” Toth said. The facility is also accepting plastic containers and expanding the types of plastics it will take to include all varieties marked numbers 1, 2, and 5. That includes things like the plastic clamshells used to hold salads and plastic yogurt containers. Those can also be dropped off for free. Toth said the plastic will be ground down by a company that recycles it into a product called Alaska Grizzly Wood.The Materials Recovery Facility also houses Anchorage’s new wood lot, something that Toth said people have been clamoring for ever since the former wood lot in South Anchorage closed. The lot is partly funded with a grant from the Anchorage Fire Department meant for wildfire mitigation. It accepts brush, branches, and cut trees that are less than six feet long at a cost of $20 per truckload or $40 for a truck and trailer load. The wood will be chipped and added to the compost piles, according to Toth. The Materials Recovery Facility, including the wood lot, is located off East 56th Avenue in Midtown Anchorage across from the current Central Transfer Station. It’s open Thursday- Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
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