Mat-Su Community Recycle Center Awarded Grant

The Rasmuson Foundation has awarded a $225,091 grant to the MAT-SU Borough for improvements to the Valley Community for Recycling Solutions (VCRS) Community Recycling Center. These improvements will allow for a safer environment for both the customers dropping off recycling material as well as the workers assisting them. The Rasmuson Foundation’s money will go toward matching a grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration.

 VCRS is a non-profit organization that has been providing recycling opportunities to the Mat-Su community since 1998. There are eight paid staff plus two from the Mature Alaskans Seeking Skills & Training as well as over 400 volunteers who help annually. The Community Recycling Center is located on five-acres adjacent to the MSB Central Landfill and next to the MSB Animal Shelter and they handle thousands of pounds of material each day. Although its main focus is the collection and processing of recyclable material, it also serves as a clearinghouse by providing educational outreach to schools, residents and businesses to promote wise waste management and the benefits of recycling.

Assistant Borough Manager, George Hays says this is the result of great teamwork. “This is yet another example of a mutually aiding partnership between the Recycling Center and the Mat-Su Borough that has been in place for several years.”

The Rasmuson Foundation has a history of generous support for VCRS. Past funding for the recycling program bought the center’s first forklift, the original covered building for residential recycling drop off, economic feasibility study, and the recently added skid steer loader. This year the funds will go to the renovation of the residential recycling drop off drive-thru which will allow it to be operational and safe when the Knik Glacier conspires with the cold winter season sending frigid ripping winds through the area. Currently, conditions such as these force the drive-thru area to be closed until the winds calm down.

The renovation will include widening the drive-thru to accommodate two lanes of traffic with an area to drop material for the outer lane. Additionally, they intend on extending the covered area to the full width of the building and fully enclosing it with garage doors at each end. VCRS director Mollie Boyer see’s a more streamlined operation that will improve traffic flow, increase capacity and aid the environment by putting less

waste in the landfill. “The project will ultimately help reduce the economic and environmental cost of managing garbage while making more resources available for development locally and nationally. We are so thankful to the Rasmuson Foundation board of directors and staff for their continuing commitment to the Mat-Su Borough and Alaska.”

For more information contact: Mollie Boyer 745-5538 or Stefan Hinman 745-9553