Spring is here and you know what that means? SPRING CLEANUP! Interior Alaska Green Star will be hosting its second Recycling-Roundup on May 22nd 2010

Start saving food cans, non-perishable food, egg cartons/plastic bags/boxes, household hazardous waste, mixed paper, newspaper, cardboard, aluminum cans, plastic containers (#1 & #2 only), glass, clean used clothing/fabric items, usable building materials/tools, and electronics* and bring them the the Tanana Valley State Fairgrounds between 10AM and 4PM Saturday May 22nd.

Click here to learn more or here to download our event flyer

* in order to assure safe, responsible electronic recycling – performed in the USA – a fee will be charged to cover recycling costs

The Alaska Dispatch wrote an interesting article on December 21st about the state of glass recycling in Anchorage. Now, we haven’t ever had glass recycling in Fairbanks, in the traditional sense, but Anchorage did for some time. Due to the state of the economy, Anchorage has stopped recycling glass as it is costly to ship to the lower-48 and provides little revenue in return. The Alaska Dispatch takes a look at glass recycling in Anchorage and sheds a tiny glimmer of hope on glass recycling.

Click here to read the full article.

Hey Fairbanks – we know you all just cleared out your houses, garages, and sheds of all those stored recyclables and reusable items for our big Recycling Round-Up event last month. But what about all those other items that weren’t being collected that day – things that are still useful and in good shape but that you just don’t need or want anymore?

Well now is your chance to continue your Spring Cleaning at the “Really Free Market” on Saturday, June 27th Patty Center Parking Lot! Now is a time to give! Empty your closets, cupboards, basements, sheds and garages – bring your tires, your doors, your set of glasses yearning to be free! Come between 8am-10am on the 27th to drop off items – and please contribute good, clean, safe and non-perishable items only!

But what will happen to all this wonderful donated stuff? Come back from 10am-4pm on the 27th and you can take whatever you need or want! You can ride the Red, Blue, and Yellow borough bus lines FREE to shop this free market. No selling, bartering, or swapping will be allowed – all items will be free for the taking!

By sharing we sustain each other and our community. This is a great opportunity to encourage reuse and extend the life of useful goods!

For more information contact:
- UAF Multicultural Affairs at 474-7300 or
- UAF Summer Sessions & Lifelong Learning at 474-7021

Want to post a flier? We’ve got two for your downloading pleasure – one |  two

Darcie, Andrea, & Kristen are all rocking out at clucking blossom today. The music is great and the sun is shining, come out and join us!

What a haul!

Fairbanksans turned out in full force on Saturday during our Recycling Roundup event. People were skeptical but we did it!

Here are the numbers:

Newspaper ~3000 pounds (Thermo-Kool)
Mixed Paper, Cardboard, & Plastic Bottles – 40’ Trailer full (Wal-Mart)
Metal Food Cans – 400 pounds (C & R Pipe and Steel Inc.)
Aluminum Cans – 400 pounds (FCA Street Outreach)
Glass Bottles – 6600 pounds (The Monolith Project)
Compost Material – 30 bags of leaves (Rosie Creek Farm)
Clothing - 3291 pounds (Fairbanks Resource Agency)
Food – 145 pounds (Food Bank)
Building Materials – 1 pickup load (Habitat for Humanity)
Hazardous Waste – 5 totes (FNSB Solid Waste Division)
Ink Cartridges - 100 cartridges, 2 printers (Cartridge World)
Electronics – 29,000 lbs (Total Reclaim, Inc.)

We’ve got some great pictures that will be posted soon once we receive permission from those pictured.

Thanks again Fairbanks!

To our volunteers, sponsors, and participants of our first ever Recycling Roundup!

This past Friday, May 15th, we had ourselves a littleelectronics recycling shin-dig out at the Tanana Valley Fairgrounds.

I say little, but truthfully, words cannot express how massive it was. I’ve been with Interior Alaska Green Star for about a year and a half now and I can honestly say this is the biggest turnout I have ever seen, with the possible exception of the haul we took in the following day (stay tuned).

We arrived bright and early, to a great sunny morning might I add, to set everything up. History has shown that our e-recycling days that take place on a weekday are usually slow with a few recyclers here and there so Darcie had planned to (wo)man the event with a few awesome volunteers. Shortly after 9:30, however, it became apparent that the day was going to be crazy, but in a good way. So, between our rush of early morning recyclers, we managed to set everything up with a lot of help from our volunteers and I decided to take the day off from work to hang out with Darcie all day. (BTW – I have an awesome job, just don’t tell them I wasn’t working that day!)

our awesome vests

For the first time ever, and I apologize to my fellow board members for admitting this to the world, we looked like a well oiled, eco-friendly, machine. We had fancy IAGS volunteer vests and three awesome signs courtesy of Spirit of Alaska Credit Union, we couldn’t have looked better if we tried. So with our trailer set up, our pop up tents popped, and the snacks on the table, our day began!

It was hard work, we took in a lot of household and business electronics on Friday. So many, in fact, that we managed to fill a truck in a single day! And, our haul was heavy; we got the forklift stuck several times but we persevered and so did the poor landfill guys who drove it.

Darcie and I were proud to be a part of our happy little non-profit on Friday, serving the community, and are thankful to all the businesses and individuals who made it possible.

IAGS Staff: Darcie Warden, Kristen Thomas, Ty Keltner, Pam Seiser, & Eva Rothman 

Next up…. Saturday’s Event

We had a great time at the Beer & “Bull” event last night. Great food, great beer, great people!

Thank you all for coming out!

Date: April 17, 2009

It was a cold, drizzly, and snowy day out in Healy but that didn’t stop us from getting some recycling done! Darcie, Andrea, Kristen and Stephen were all there bright, early and eager to work.

The day started out slowly but we had several recyclers early in the morning and then… the kids came!

The Tri-Valley fifth graders were an integral part of our entire operation that day. Not only did they bring us 1000 pounds of electronic equipment from the school to recycle – they helped us prepare it for shipment. They unloaded the trailer full of equipment – old Macs and CRT monitors mostly – and organized everything nicely on the ground. They all worked great together helping each other lug those heavy monitors over to the pit and not a single one was dropped!

The kids were having a great time – but then things got even better when we started letting them take things apart! Clipping the cables from the devices helps aid in packing them safely and securely, allows the wires to be sorted separately, and is a whole lot of fun. But the best part came when Kristen taught them how to safely remove the stands from the monitors (the little round bases on CRTs that hold them upright) by Godzilla stomping them. They LOVED it!

Kristen also received help from two great girls who assisted in loading the monitor stands into the truck by flinging them like Frisbees before placing them into a big box inside. Of course, this was all done safely and under Kristen’s direct supervision.

The kids were also able to see what computers and monitors look like inside after we took a computer apart to destroy the hard drive. Overall we had a very successful day with 4 pallets of electronics  making their way to Anchorage before being shipped to Total-Reclaim in Seattle, Washington for recycling.

Volunteers: Stephen Price from the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council, the Tri-Valley School Fifth Grade Class and their teacher Lori Brewer.

IAGS Staff: Darcie Warden, Andrea Miller, & Kristen Thomas

The Northern Alaska Environmental Center – along with IA Green Star – are having a little green shindig at the Silver Gulch Brewery on Tuesday, May 12th from 6:30-9:00PM.

Join us for a showing of Garbage Man – an award-winning film by Oliver Hodge about using recycled goods to create mass and energy-independent housing.  There will also be door-prizes and the chance to discuss Reducing, Reusing, and Recycling with your local community members!

Click here for the flier and additional information

* Beer & Food will be available for purchase from the Silver Gulch Brewery