Borough eyes repurposing landfill building for new recycling facility

The Fairbanks North Star Borough administration wants to take a page from the recycler’s guidebook: why build new when you can repurpose?

An ordinance sponsored by Borough Mayor Grier Hopkins would push forward a $2.5 million scoping phase for a new central recycling facility to replace the one on Marika Road.

“We’re looking at refurbishing an existing facility at the landfill instead of trying to build an entirely new facility,” Hopkins told reporters Thursday. “It will be fiscally responsible and make sure we use the infrastructure we have in place as best we can.”

Hopkins said that the borough originally eyed building a new central recycling facility. However, he picked up an idea from the former Mayor Bryce Ward’s administration to repurpose a facility instead.

“Under my watch, I did not want to go forward with a new building,” Hopkins said. “We need to be responsible with our tax dollars and that’s the direction I want to go.”

The borough leases its current central recycling facility on Marika Road from the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Hopkins said there are several advantages: a centralized location at the landfill, personnel, and equipment.

“One of the bottle necks we have at the current recycling center … is that the doors are not big enough to get big commercial trucks into the facility,” Hopkins said. He added the facility’s balers, which compact recycling materials into squares, “are not big enough to do it economically.”

He noted that the borough received a large horizontal baler from the military a few years ago. However, it’s been sitting unused in the borough’s landfill warehouse, which it wants to repurpose because it can’t fit in the Marika Road facility.

The Assembly last year programmed $17 million for design, scoping and construction costs for such a facility. However, Hopkins said he hopes the scoping phase for refurbishing the existing landfill warehouse will reduce costs.

“This will make recycling in our community economical for the first time,” Hopkins said. “That’s something I’ve been hearing about for my whole life here.”

Refurbishing the building will take work since it’s essentially a steel building. That work includes insulation, central air, electricity and other essentials.

“It has a pretty solid foundation, and the bones of the building are good,” Hopkins said.

He noted a larger facility would allow the borough to accept recycling from organizations like the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District, UAF, local medical facilities and — ironically enough — the borough itself.

“The borough offices and administration can’t currently recycle,” Hopkins said.

Hopkins added it would allow the Solid Waste Division to set up recycling dumpsters at transfer sites.

“We hope to be building come the summer of 2027,” Hopkins said.

Hopkins said one of the larger benefits would be expanding the landfill’s current operational lifespan. The 250-acre facility initially was projected to last through 2070, but that depends heavily on recycling rates and the amount of waste produced by borough residents.

Green Star of Interior Alaska currently manages the Marika facility.

The borough’s current recycling policy allows residents to drop materials off at no charge. Commercial deliveries pay $113 per ton and $1,100 per ton for electronic recycling.

“We will be able to keep things like paper out of the landfill, meaning the landfill last longer and we don’t have to spend hundreds of millions of dollars as fast,” Hopkins said. “It will save our residents money as well because it will be less per ton to bring recycling to the center rather than bringing it straight to the trash part of the landfill.”

The borough isn’t the only recycling service, with private commercial enterprises such as {span}C+R Pipe Metal Recycling and K&K Recycling{/span} also taking in some recyclables.

He noted that most commercial entities that want to recycle must send it to the landfill. Commercial disposal tipping fees cost about $145 per ton, according to the current fiscal-year fee schedule.

Management of a new facility will be a discussion for a later time. Green Star’s contract would end about the anticipated construction start.

“We will be able to open up a contract for curbside recycling, who manages the transfer sites and that recycling center … all those open up about the same time we prepare for a new future,” Hopkins said.

Hopkins’s ordinance goes to the Assembly Finance Committee for review on Jan. 22 and to an Assembly public hearing and vote on Jan. 29.