Posted by Corinne Smith | Apr 20, 2022 | Featured Stories, News | 0

Haines’ recycling center received roughly 50 refrigerators and freezers since October 2021. They must be drained of hazardous chemicals and barged out to a recycler in Washington state (Corinne Smith/KHNS)

A Haines nonprofit, Haines Friends of Recycling, says it’s working to support the community to reduce waste in the Chilkat Valley by reusing and recycling everything from household plastics, to fishing nets, electronics and appliances.

Organizers the Haines recycling center say it’s designed to be as easy to use as possible. 

“We’re standing out now in the collection area and in the front of the building, and that collection area is open 24/7, 365 days a year,” said Melissa Aronson, the Chair of Haines Friends of Recycling, a non-profit and recycling center that’s been running since 1999.

People can drive up anytime, and put recyclables in bins designated for clean plastics, aluminum cans, and paper. She says each year anywhere between 200,000 to 300,000 pounds of recyclables are processed here. 

Haines resident Liam Wirak-Cassidy is dropping off some plastics and cans on his day off.

“It’s extremely helpful to be able to cruise in anytime on your own schedule. Of course, I always leave lots of cash in the donation container,” he said smiling.

The center has a bright yellow bin for cash donations that help to support the year-round operations. Aronson says that’s about a third of the center’s funding, it’s also supported by the sale of recycled materials and grants. But with the cost of trash disposal at Haines’ privately-owned landfill, Community Waste Solutions, the community has a big incentive to throw less away.

The recycling center’s drop off area is donation-based, and open 24/7 for easy use (Corinne Smith/KHNS)

Aronson underscores the need for clean, and sorted recyclables. Then, she explains, staff and volunteers bale them up – whether cardboard, plastic or cans – and they’re stored until they reach 80 bales, enough to fill a conex container that is barged south, to recycling centers in Washington state. 

“Everything that we send out for recycling is actually recycled,” she said. “Nothing’s landfilled in the Pacific Northwest, and that’s why there’s certain things we can’t take because there’s no market for them right now.”

One of those things is glass. She says it’s too expensive to ship, and there’s very few uses for it locally. 

“Right now, glass is so cheap to make. Because it’s basically made out of sand, there’s not any purpose in shipping it anywhere,” Aronson said. “And so that’s something it’d be really nice to see that solved here locally, maybe with a glass crusher, that can break things down small enough, it could be used for fill.”

Melissa Aronson is the chair of Haines Friends of Recycling and the Haines Solid Waste Working Group (Corinne Smith/KHNS)

But the recycling center does take many other items. It organizes special collection events throughout the year, including for recycling fishing nets, scrap metal, and electronics – from old TVs, cords, computers, or stereos. Aronson says that’s the fastest growing type of item they’re seeing.

“That’s always a major event, we usually take in something around 15,000 pounds of electronics every year, it’s pretty phenomenal,” she said.

The center recycles fluorescent lights, appliances like refrigerators, old washers and dryers and scrap metal. Aronson says there have been some surprises – about 10 years ago, someone arrived with an aircraft: 

“We’ve had things like airplanes show up, for us to recycle,” she said. “Well, we dismantle them as best we can with volunteers, and it’s mostly aluminum and off it goes. But please don’t bring us airplanes,” she said laughing.

Behind the facility is a large, newly leveled staging area. There’s an AML container full of 50,000 pounds of scrap metal, including a now smashed dentist’s chair, collected over the last year. There’s a solar powered electric fence enclosing bales of plastics and cans, to keep out bears. Aronson says it’s effective, but it’s a constant task. 

“Over the winter we had a bear get into one of the bales, you know nothing like a peanut butter jar inside 500 pounds of plastic,” Aronson said. “So please, everybody, make sure your containers are washed because otherwise it just becomes a real problem for us.”

Against a nearby fence, there’s a crowd of roughly 50 refrigerators and freezers.

“Those all came in since October,” she said.

Aronson says it is pretty typical to see that many dropped off in about six months, she says many just need repairs.

“We really need somebody in this town who is good at repairing equipment, and appliances. There’s a really good job opportunity, business opportunity there for somebody, because a lot of these really, you know, could have been repaired. But there’s just not any way to do that here,” she said. “So anybody looking for a job, or a business to start, start an appliance repair business.”

She says for now, they have a licensed technician drain the hazardous chemicals and they’ll be barged out later this year.

She says the best thing is to try to repurpose large bulky household items.

“The dryer tubs make great raised beds for gardens, I grow a lot of stuff in my garden, in dryer tubs,” Aronson said. “The washing machine tubs, that have all of the holes in them, become really good little compost bins.”

The Haines Friends of Recycling has a new resource guide for the public with tips and resources for reducing waste, and what materials should be recycled and where to take them in Haines. It’s part of the effort to make recycling as easy as possible, but overall the goal is to reduce the amount of waste in the Chilkat Valley.

‘Reducing Our Waste’ in the Chilkat Valley is also the theme of this year’s Earth Day celebration, taking place from 9 a.m. to  noon Saturday April 23 at the Haines school cafeteria. A full list of activities will be published later this week. To see the Haines Friend’s of Recycling ‘Reduce Our Waste Together’ resource guide here. 

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