Most electronics are made up of hazardous materials such as lead, mercury, palladium, and other various heavy metals. Dan bates says when electronics are disposed of properly the longevity of the borough landfill increases, while the risk of toxic and harmful matter decreases. Dan Bates, Warehouse Manager for Green Star of Interior Alaska said, “We’re kind of keeping the environment clean, and we’re also keeping the landfill clean.”
Computers, batteries, keyboards, televisions and microwaves are just a few of the many items that can be dropped off at the central recycling facility and brought to Green Star.
Volunteers and workers break down the hazardous elements of the products and separate them into specific areas where they can then be transferred or repurposed.
Levi Jenkins works as the Assistant Warehouse Manager for Green Star of Interior Alaska. “So this is our reuse and re-sale area. We find things throughout the totes you saw earlier that we receive and we pull it out. If it looks like it’s reusable we bring it back here we test it, it works, we can either donate it to another non-profit or we can sell it in order to generate income to take care of all these electronics in the first place,” said Jenkins.
Green Star is made up primarily of volunteers and training is provided onsite. Art Gelvin volunteers in his free time. He says it’s his way of giving back to the community. Art Gelvin is a volunteer at Green Star. “To me it’s just something to do. It’s a community effort too, they really started getting the word out 10-15 years ago, when they started out one weekend a year, getting electronics and then they moved forward to one month a year, and CRF is up and running now and they take electronics 5 days a week.
Charcoal Machine
Carbonization Furnace
Briquette Machine
