New plant is a dream come true for Palmer recyclers

PALMER, Alaska — The Mat-Su has a new recycling center. The state-of-the-art facility has been a dream of the community’s a long time in the making.

“This is a very exciting day and it's been a lot of work on a lot of people's parts,” said volunteer Ley Schleich. “There's so much thought that has gone into this entire facility.”

The new center opened Dec. 16th, moving from its previous location off the Palmer-Wasilla Highway where it spent the past eight years, but this is a permanent home for the group, Valley Community Recycling Solutions (VCRS).

“It is going to be easier access, less handling. So our guys can really stay on focus on what we can accept in the future, what we're not taking now, we can expand the program.  So this simplifies it so it opens the doors for more possibilities,” said VCRS Executive Director Mollie Boyer.

Construction of the new recycling center took a little over a year, but Boyer says VCRS worked 13 years to make it actually happen.

“The ability to have an effect on our landfill, reducing the amount of waste going in there by recovering the resources that we can then turn into local economic development. It really helps us to create a sustainable, healthy infrastructure for our community,” said Boyer.

VCRS will hold a grand opening and ribbon cutting ceremony on January 6th at 3:00 p.m.  The public is invited to attend, but the center will not be open for recycling that day.