Alaska Dispatch

While glass recycling is a thing of the past in Anchorage, construction and demolition recycling is a new addition. In November Central Recycling Services opened a multimillion dollar plant to take scrap metal, rebar, contrete, shingles, scrap lumber, Sheetrock, carpet and other materials and turn them into concrete and landscape aggregate, pallets, shredded rubber, animal bedding, mulch and more.

A 2006 consultant report for the Municipality of Anchorage found that 32,000 tons of construction and demolition materials ended up in the city's waste stream every year. (Compare that to glass recycling, which accounts for 1,500 tons of landfill waste annually.) With that in mind, city recycling coordinator Donna Mears calls the new service a huge leap forward.

"Instead of scooping it up out of one hole and going into another, it keeps going around and around and around," she said.

Contact Stephen Nowers at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and Jill Burke at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it