On Thursday, people who want to drop off trash and recyclables at the same time in Anchorage got another option when the city opened a new recycling center at its Central Transfer Station. The recycling center will accept plastic containers (PETE 1 and 2), glass bottles and jars, metal cans, newspaper, mixed paper and corrugated cardboard.
The new recycling area -- located at 1111 E. 56th Ave. -- means people who don't already have curbside trash and recycling service can make one trip to the transfer station without having to go about 18 miles to the main landfill in Eagle River.
A private recycling center in Anchorage run by Westrock has taken drop-off recyclables for years, but the city said people complained it was inconvenient when they also had trash to offload.
"It's something that people have asked for," the municipality's Solid Waste Services spokesman, Kennis Brady, said. "They have always wondered why they had to make multiple stops."
The Anchorage Solid Waste Services Department receives about 6,000 tons of recycled material each year through its curbside services and its facility in Eagle River and hopes the Anchorage drop-off area will increase that amount.
Not all of that recycled material is used in Alaska.
"We don't have enough businesses or innovative ways to use recycled materials here in Anchorage yet," Brady said. "It is something the (city) is working on."
Brady said the material that can't be used locally is sent to a private company and shipped to the Lower 48. Brady said none of the recyclable materials the municipality receives are put back into the landfill.
Specialized containers to house the recycled goods at the Central Transfer Station were paid for by a $162,000 appropriation by the Anchorage Assembly in 2014.
The Central Transfer Station is open from 8 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday-Saturday.