Too Much Glass?

"That's 100 tons that aren't in the landfill," said Walker, who is filling in as the student association's recycling director.

Associated Students of UAF worked with several businesses and organizations to start the glass recycling program in February. Lynden Transport agreed to haul the glass to Anchorage, where it can be crushed and eventually used as road fill or for sandblasting.

The organizers received financial help through a grant and through several businesses who paid $100 to $150 to sponsor a bin at the collection site.

Walker said the student association hopes to convince more businesses and organizations to sponsor a bin to help pay to expand the program. Greater sponsorship could help alleviate the full conditions that people often encounter when they bring their glass to the site, he said.

For Lynden drivers, overloaded bins have been the biggest hassle on trips to pick up glass from the site, Lynden Transport driver Mike Gaiser said.

"If you don't really monitor it, people just leave their garbage here," he added.

Walker said he is encouraged that so many Fairbanks-area residents are taking their glass to be recycled and has a few requests that he called crucial to the program's preservation.

If the bins are full--as they have often been since the program started--wait until after they're emptied on Tuesdays and Fridays before dropping off your glass, he said.

Also, don't toss random garbage in the bins or leave the caps on bottles; wash out those spaghetti sauce or marinated artichoke heart jars before bringing them to the recycling bin; and don't toss the cardboard containers used to carry glass into the bins, Walker said.

Because the program depends on factors such as Lynden Transport's willingness to truck the glass to Anchorage for free, he said, it's important that people who bring their glass to the facility follow the guidelines set up by organizers.

"Everything is being done on kind of a handshake basis," Walker said.

Overloaded bins make life hard for Lynden Transport and glass that's dirty or mixed with random trash decreases the value of the shipment, he said.

"So far we've had a very good reputation," said Walker, who was busy Tuesday afternoon helping Gaiser pack a load of glass for shipment to Anchorage.

But the program could be jeopardized if Lynden Transport decides that picking up overflowing bins isn't worth the effort or university administrators grow tired of seeing a heaping pile of glass in a campus parking lot, he said.

As he dumped empty bottles into a bin Tuesday, Roy Earnest said he's been bringing his glass to the recycling site since it opened.

Earnest's strategy when he finds that all the bins are too full is one that Walker likes.

"If they're all full, I just carry them (the bottles) with me until they're empty," Earnest said. - News-Miner (Fairbanks, Alaska)