Editor’s note: This story was updated Oct. 10 with additional information about the used baler the Kenai Peninsula Borough is planning to purchase, and on Oct. 14 with updated information about aluminium recycling at Central Peninsula Landfill
After the 33-year old baler machine at Soldotna’s Central Peninsula Landfill broke in December 2024, aluminum and cardboard dropped in the former recycling receptacles piled up in containers or were buried along with the trash. The borough found a local processor for aluminum in mid-October and is planning on purchasing a used baler to help deal with cardboard, but citizens concerned about recycling need to continue making their voices heard to ensure future progress.
Since 1992, the borough had used its baler to compact aluminum and other recyclables into dense, easily shippable cubes that could be trucked to recycling centers—most recently to WestRock Recycling in Anchorage. Without a baler, nothing from Central Peninsula Landfill has been recycled.
As of mid-September 2025, Central Peninsula landfill was not recycling aluminum, and many of the cans dropped off there had been buried. On Oct. 13, the borough reached an agreement for Peninsula Scrap and Salvage to take and recycle aluminum collected at the landfill, said borough acting solid waste director Tom Winkler. Peninsula Scrap and Salvage, roughly seven miles by highway from Central Peninsula Landfill on Kalifornsky Beach Road, will be picking up the cans at no cost, said special assistant to the mayor Dana Cannava.
- Central peninsula residents can also take cans directly to Peninsula Scrap and Salvage at 42462 Kalifornsky Beach Road. They pay 10 cents per pound of aluminum.
- Material from the Homer Transfer Station is baled and shipped separately, and is still being sent to a recycling center.
- If a can is labeled with an adhesive sticker (such as many of our local breweries use) peel it off before tossing it in your recycling bin. Recycling centers consider these stickers contamination, and they may cause a load of aluminum to be rejected and landfilled.
Smelting fresh aluminum accounts for 4% of the world’s power consumption, according to the World Economic Forum. Recycling it, though, requires just 5% of the energy needed to produce it from ore. For every landfilled aluminum can, it takes 20 times more energy to make a brand new one, rather than recycling. Aluminum is important, so we’re fortunate that it can be recycled indefinitely, and that it’s easy and even profitable to recycle.
Cardboard
Although it is important to recycle, aluminum is far from the Borough’s largest volume of recyclable material. The landfill received 790 tons of cardboard in 2024—more than double the 326.25 tons it received in 2020. The surge of cardboard follows a national trend driven by online retail companies, like Amazon, delivering their products in cardboard packaging. In addition to consuming landfill volume, cardboard and other woodpulp products buried in landfills can decompose into methane, a greenhouse gas many times more potent than CO2.
Chart by Cook Inletkeeper with data from ReGroup. Thanks to Jan Wallace for collecting and sharing.
New baler, new possibilities
At their Oct. 10 meeting the assembly will be voting on whether to spend $1.2 million from a federal grant on landfill improvements, including buying a used baler from Valley Recycling in Palmer for $10,000. The ordinance also appropriates $450,000 for work on the building that houses the baler.
The replacement baler is a “Barracuda” model manufactured by Harris that can compact aluminum, paper, and plastic. Its current owner, Valley Recycling, is a nonprofit that manages recycling in the Mat-Su Borough in partnership with the borough solid waste department. They have an additional larger baler and are selling the smaller one to make space for a new glass-pulverizing machine.
Valley Recycling was started by community volunteers and has since grown into a potential model for recycling on the Kenai Peninsula. They collect 12 types of recyclable material, which they bale and ship to buyers, including Alaskan businesses such as the Wasilla-based ThermoKool which turns cardboard and paper into cellulose insulation, mulch, and other products. Reusable items — buckets, moving boxes, books — are sold at prices ranging from fifty cents to five dollars to help support the mission. Their facility also has classrooms, a public walking path, 4 kilowatts of solar power, and a friendly cat named Glenn.
Valley Recycling became what it is because of driven volunteers, a supportive borough assembly, and a willingness to seek and invest in long-term solutions. Creating a similar operation today on the Kenai Peninsula might or might not be feasible, but we can and should seek solutions with the same tenacity.
The borough needs to be more public with recycling plans
“Failing to plan is planning to fail,” as the saying goes. Intentional or not, this is the path that borough recycling has been traveling. Who could have foreseen a 33 year baling machine breaking down? Recycling wasn’t enough of a priority to plan for this inevitability. Thanks to the borough’s reactive stance, the baler failure has meant nine months of landfilling recyclables. We support the new baler, and we hope assembly members will ask questions on October 14 about how it fits into broader recycling plans going forward. The new machine is needed in the short term, but it is not by itself a fix to the problem of making recycling effective and sustainable.
What you can do:
- Don’t give up on recycling. You can take your aluminum to Peninsula Scrap and Salvage or the Homer Transfer Station.
- Call the borough Mayor, Peter Micciche at 907-714-2150
- Tell your assembly representative and borough staff that you want them to fix their recycling issues. Find assembly members and their contact information here.
- Don’t forget to reduce and reuse. The most effective way to minimize impact is to keep refuse out of landfills.
Keeping the borough committed to recycling will take engaged residents and community pressure. Tell your assembly members and borough staff that you value the wise use of materials, and want your borough to be active in solving our waste problems.