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E-News: Green Star's Electronic, Environmental Newsletter!
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Green Star E-News Vol. 2, No. 6 June 11, 2001 Recognizing businesses committed to environmental responsibility. In this issue: * Shining Stars: Steller and Polaris K-12 * Glass Recycling Program Update * June Green Events * Recycling 101: Plastics * Computer Diskette Recycling * This Month’s Hot Link: Citizens for Recycling Solutions * Thank You 2001 Sponsors SHINING STARS Steller and Polaris K-12 will be the first schools to receive the Green Star Air Quality Award. Each school has completed at least twelve of the eighteen required standards. The schools are set to receive their awards on June 18th at the Chamber of Commerce Forum. Special thanks goes out to sophomores Corey Rennell of Steller and Sarah Gottstein of Polaris for putting together applications for their schools. Each school helped manage dust control by planting greenery near parking lots and they also maintain a “no-idling” policy. For a list of all Green Star Awardees, visit our web site at http://www.greenstarinc.org. . ================================= GLASS RECYCLING PROGRAM UPDATE Green Star’s business glass recycling assistance program is coming to an end in June. Since it began in April 2000, the program has successfully increased awareness about glass recycling, and increased glass collection from both businesses and the community. Currently, 25 businesses in Anchorage recycle glass. About 16 businesses signed up through the glass-recycling program and another 12 were identified during the project as already recycling glass. The retention rate for the program was quite high, with only three businesses not able to continue the program. Each business that signed up received free collection bins and three months of free pick-up service through the program, which was funded by the Municipality of Anchorage’s Solid Waste Services Waste Reduction and Recycling Challenge Grant Program, and the Alaska Science and Technology Foundation. During the program, Green Star worked closely with Anchorage Refuse and Environmental Recycling Inc. to create a complete system where glass dumpsters were placed at the business, emptied weekly, and delivered to Environmental Recycling’s glass processing facility at Point Woronzof. In addition to business recycling, four public drop-off bins were placed, bringing the total to five bins in Anchorage. Overall, almost 500 tons of glass were collected during the first ten months of the program, averaging about 50 tons per month. Both the business programs and the public drop-off bins will remain in place, and Green Star hopes that participation will increase. Congratulations to the following businesses for giving glass recycling a try! Benihana Capitol Glass Chilkoot Charlie’s Crazy Horse Dark Horse Coffee Company Fly By Night Club Glacier Brewhouse Gwennie’s Hilton Anchorage Hooters Hot Rods Kaladi Bros. La Mex (three locations) Millenium Hotel Moose’s Tooth Orso Ristorante Pepper Mill Replacement Glass Sea Galley Sheraton Anchorage Side Street Espresso Snow City Cafe Sourdough Mining Company Trans-America Glass Westmark Anchorage Hotel West Coast International Inn Public drop-off bins are found at the following locations: Anchorage Recycling Center, 6161 Rosewood Street The Home Depot, 515 E. Tudor Road Northway Mall, 3101 Penland Parkway Fairview Recreation Center, 1121 E. 10th Ave. Spenard Recreation Center, 202 W. 48th Ave. There is still time to take advantage of the program’s services, so please contact Green Star before the end of June and get your glass-recycling program up and running. Contact Jeanne Carlson at 278-7839. ================================ GREEN EVENTS UPDATE A Green Event is a public event that has agreed to reduce waste and provide recycling bins for public use. Bins are available for free use through Green Star. Contact jeanne@greenstarinc.org for more information. In its first four months, Green Star’s Green Events program has certified 23 separate events, diverting more than 11 tons of recyclable material from the landfill. It also recently received recognition from a local recycling group. On May 23rd, Alaskans for Litter Prevention and Recycling (ALPAR), a local organization made up of haulers and freight companies working to transport recyclables to markets, held its Annual Meeting and Awards Banquet. At the banquet, Green Star’s Green Events program received ALPAR’s Board of Directors’ Award. ALPAR and Green Star work closely together to promote recycling throughout the State. Green Star greatly appreciates receiving recognition from a peer organization in the community and is proud to be contributing to the betterment of the local community through recycling and waste prevention efforts. The program continues to heat up this summer with a strong list of certified Green Events for June. June Green Events: (scheduled as of this mailing): June 2-3 and 9-10 Three Barons Renaissance Fair ~ Alaska Pacific University campus, Saturdays noon – 9pm and Sundays noon – 7pm. For more information, contact The Three Barons Renaissance Fair Inc., 868-8012. June 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 Downtown Saturday Market ~ 3rd Ave. and E Street, 10am – 6pm. For more information, contact Bill Webb at Webb’s Consulting and Management Services, Inc., 272-5634. June 13-17 North to the Future – Encampment 2001 ~ Girl Scouts Susitna Councial, Palmer State Fairgrounds. For more information, contact Jane Straight, 248-2250. June 23 Alaska Scottish Highland Games ~ Lions Park, Eagle River, Games 9am – 6pm and Ceilidh 7pm-midnight. For more information, contact James Roberston, 564-7140. June 23 Mayor’s Midnight Sun Marathon ~ TBA ================================ RECYCLING 101: PLASTICS This article is the fifth in a continuing series on the materials recyclable in Anchorage. The National Picture In 1998, the U.S. generated 820,000 tons of PET water bottles and 700,000 tons of HDPE milk jugs. Total PET container and packaging generation was 1.66 million tons and HDPE total generation was 3.88 million tons. Plastic containers and packaging make up 4.5% of our waste stream by weight. Considering how prevalent plastic packaging is, this figure, which is based on weight rather than volume, does not accurately reflect the quantities of plastic we use and discard. Even though there is a lot of it, plastic packaging is relatively light compared to such packaging items as cardboard or glass, which skews the weight figures. Across, the U.S., we recover 35% of the PET soda bottles we use and 31% of the HDPE milk jugs. Overall, we recover only 9.7% of all plastic packaging. A low recycling rate for plastic bags and sacks (only 0.7%) brings the average recovery rate down considerably. These figures do not include generation or recycling rates for durable plastic items, only disposable packaging and containers. Recycling plastics is typically not a closed-loop process. Plastic beverage and food containers that are collected for recycling are used in a variety of new products. These may include fleece clothing, t-shirts, sleeping bag and jacket filling, plastic car bumpers and other auto parts, office supplies such as in/out trays, recycling bins, trash bags, grocery bags, and flower pots. Recycled plastics are also used to make plastic lumber or composite wood/plastic lumber, which is used to make decking, fencing, docks, foot bridges, picnic tables, and benches. Some recycled plastics are processed back into consumer product containers such as detergent bottles, but any recycled plastics used in food packaging must get FDA approval. The FDA has given permission to several companies to use recycled plastics in food-grade packaging, based on information the companies submitted about their processes. That’s why you don’t see post-consumer recycled content in Coke or Pepsi bottles, but you may soon Plastics in Anchorage According to a 1997 study in Anchorage, we generated 25,614 tons of plastics that year. We diverted less than one percent of that for recycling or 14 tons. Some plastics recycling has been happening in the Valley and at Elmendorf Air Force Base. In addition, several large companies in Anchorage collect and bale their stretch wrap and other plastic film for recycling. However, Anchorage residents have been without plastics recycling for several years. How Do I Recycle Plastics? Until very recently, the answer to this question in Anchorage was, “You don’t.” That answer has changed. Plastics will be collected in Anchorage for the first time in many years on Saturday, June 9th, from 10am until 4pm at the Anchorage Recycling Center on Rosewood Street. This is a first step in what we hope will become a full-fledged plastics recycling program. Citizens for Recycling Solutions is working with the Recycling Center to help educate residents about plastics recycling at a monthly drop-off event. Starting in June, plastics will be collected at the Recycling Center on every second Saturday of the month until October. In October, the Recycling Center will evaluate the quality of the materials they are receiving to determine if they can offer the collection bin on a regular basis. Read carefully because recycling plastics is not as easy as it seems! Only very specific plastic types are accepted. These are the rules for recycling plastic containers. First, look for the small recycling triangle with a number in it. It is usually found on the bottom of the container. You can only recycle #1 (PET or PETE) and #2 (HDPE) resins. Next, once you have identified your #1 and #2 containers, check for the neck. You can only recycle #1 and #2 bottles that have a neck smaller than the rest of the container. That means that tubs and cups are not recyclable; only bottles and jugs. Finally, determine if the container once held a dangerous or hazardous substance, such as motor oil, antifreeze, pesticides, household chemicals, cleaners. These containers are not accepted for safety and processing reasons. To protect residents, recycling center workers, and workers at the end-user facilities, the Recycling Center is asking Anchorage to keep hazardous materials out of the recycling stream. Now you should have the plastic containers that are recyclable in Anchorage. Are you curious to know why plastics that say they are the same really aren’t in the eyes of recyclers? The symbol on the bottom of the container only tells us about the type of resin used. Even though the plastic resin in a milk jug and a butter tub is the same, the molding process to make them is quite different. The milk jug is blow molded, like blowing a bubble, and the tub is injection molded, like stamping two molds together. To use each technique, different chemicals need to be added to each plastic resin to make it melt and flow correctly. These added chemicals make the resins incompatible in most recycling processes because they no longer melt at the same rate. The biggest recycling end markets are for the blow-molded containers since we generate so many more of them than the other types of containers. These recycling rules are typical for almost all plastics recycling programs in the U.S. so Anchorage is not just trying to make things more challenging for us. The only instance where plastic types and even resins are combined is in lower end uses, such as certain types of recycled plastic lumber or composite lumber (plastic and wood mixed). The plastic bags recycled in Anchorage typically go to this end use. Here are some examples to help you figure out the rules: PET (#1) BOTTLES Includes plastic water and soda bottles, both clear and green (like Sprite); clear shampoo bottles HDPE (#2) BOTTLES Includes milk jugs, both the cloudy and the yellow variety; detergent bottles; cloudy or colored shampoo bottles PLASTIC BAGS Includes grocery bags, newspaper sleeves, drycleaner bags, shrink wrap, stretch wrap, plastic film WHAT YOU CANNOT RECYCLE: Yogurt cups, butter tubs, Cool Whip containers, plastic cups, plastic plates, plastic cutlery, straws, plastic trays such as take-out containers, trash bags, bubble wrap, food-contaminated plastics, any plastics with a #3-#7 on it unless it is an acceptable plastic film item, any containers that have held hazardous or toxic chemicals ================================ |
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