Cook Inletkeeper is collecting plastic for an innovative local recycling project. Drop-off locations include:
Central Peninsula: Community Action Studio & The Goods Sustainable Grocery
Homer: Sustainable Wares & The Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies
accepted materials
- We’re taking type 1, 2, 4, and 5 plastics. That covers most types of disposable and single-use plastic.
- Please remove all food waste, but don’t worry about the labels.
- Please remove bottle caps and lids.
- You don’t need to sort them by type—they all go into one container!
Stay tuned for additional plastic drop-off locations around the Kenai Peninsula!
The problem
It is hard to avoid buying single-use plastic. From Saran wrap to baby food to shampoo bottles, we all buy disposable plastics we have to throw away because there’s no other good use for them. In the landfill, they’ll persist for hundreds of years — meaning the soda you drank in less than ten minutes will outlive you by centuries.
Our present recycling on the Kenai Peninsula is limited and carbon-intensive. Central Peninsula Landfill takes only two of the most common plastics, type 1 and 2, for recycling. Type 1 recycling is limited to screw-top containers such as soda bottles. Other Type 1 items, like clamshells, get buried. The landfill ships plastic out from Soldotna to commercial recycling plants, often in the Lower 48 or overseas. Just shipping our waste creates a big carbon footprint. And for commercial recycling to happen at all, someone else needs to buy the material and recycle it into a product that can compete in the global supply system. What if we could recycle local plastic into a local product, without it needing to leave the Peninsula?
The solution
Anchorage engineer Patrick Simpson with Alaska Plastics Recovery has developed a recycling machine – the Mobile Plastic Ocean Waste Recycler (MPOWR) – that turns multiple types of plastic into plastic lumber. The device fits in a shipping container, allowing it to move from community to community, reshaping local collections of plastic waste into usable plastic lumber.
The MPOWR was designed to help take care of lost fishing gear and other plastic waste that winds up in the ocean. But thanks to partnerships with Inletkeeper, Sustainable Seward, and ReGroup, we’re collecting household plastic waste as well.
Plastic lumber has already been in use in the construction industry for decades. Besides recycling our plastic waste and keeping it out of the environment and landfill, it also adds to Alaska’s economic potential by helping us make products of our own, cutting out the supply line delays and need to depend on other suppliers.
For more information on the process and mission of Alaska Plastics Recovery, see Simpson's application for start-up funding from the U.S Environmental Protection Agency, his report on designing the MPOWR, coverage of his project by Alaska Public Media, and the Peninsula Clarion's reporting on plastics collections in Seward.
Why?
Plastics that don't make it to either recycling or the landfill contaminate our waterways, harm wildlife, and damage wild landscapes. For example, marine mammals often becomes entangled in discarded or lost fishing gear, and confused seabirds often eat large pieces of colorful plastic, which clog up their stomachs.
More insidiously, plastics both inside and outside landfills break down into tiny particles known as microplastics. In the ocean, the churn of currents and waves creates microplastics that can enter the gills and guts of marine life, including salmon, and may contaminate seafood.
The true solution is to produce much less plastic, which begins with consuming less of it -- see tips below. But for plastics that already exist, we can stop them from reaching ocean by recycling them into durable products like lumber.
Eliminating ocean plastics is part of Cook Inletkeeper’s mission of protecting our wild salmon, waterways, and ocean environment, and we’re glad to be partnering in this innovative effort.
Tips for reducing plastic consumption
The best fate for our tides of existing plastic waste will be getting safely locked up in a durable commodity like the lumber Simpson aims to create. But the long term answer is not to create future plastic waste. Here's how you can help:
- Buy drinks in aluminum cans instead of plastic or glass bottles. Aluminum is much more recyclable than plastic or glass. Pro tip: If you need a quick soft drink fix, use a reusable bottle at the soda fountain instead!
- Save plastic bags and reuse them for your produce, or use canvas/cloth bags.
- Swap out your body wash in the shower for an old-fashioned soap bar. It’s also a great way to support some of our local artisans, who make great-smelling goat soap here on the Kenai Peninsula.
