MAT-SU—The ceremonial ribbon was cut today with more than 150 supporters cheering and laughing and listening to speeches inside the new $3.9 million recycling center in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough. The facility allows this community to participate in the global economy, said event speaker Pete Grogan, with International Paper, a company that buys 4 million tons of recycled paper a year.

The new center is next to the landfill and Animal Care off 49^th State Street at 9465 E. Chanlyut Circle. The Mat-Su Borough owns the building and the land. The non-profit, Valley Community for Recycling Solutions, will operate the facility. The project was paid for by grants and loans and donations as part of a funding partnership between the Borough, the State, the Federal government and private foundations. Wolf Architecture designed the building. FE Contracting built it. Mat-Su Borough Public Works Project Manager Jeff Walden managed the construction.

"The new facility, with its 23,600 square feet of space, will truly allow the capacity for recycling here to expand," Assemblymember Warren Keogh told the crowd.

"Previously the Mat-Su’s largest employer—the school district—could not meet its recycling needs. Today all that has changed.  The constant stream of recycling materials from the 2000 employees and the 17,000 students can now be recycled here," Keogh said.  "The diversion of materials from the garbage, saves expensive real estate at the landfill.  One cell at the landfill fills up every 6-7 years and costs $3 million. The effort here slows down that rate of expansion."

Click here to listen to Warren Keogh.

Paper can be recycled seven times. Some 63 percent of all the paper in the U.S. was recycled in 2009, which amounted to 50 million tons of paper. "We need larger volumes of paper in the interest of meeting global demand for recyclables," said Pete Grogan, the Manager of Market Development and Innovation for International Paper, one of the largest recycling outfits in the world. Grogran explained how recycling is a part of international commerce.

"Oftentimes we hear people talk about recycling doesn't work because there aren't markets for the material," Grogan said. "And there was a time historically when markets were somewhat unsettled. That has changed dramatically in the entire world, in the United States in the last decade, and there is demand, significant demand for these materials. And that's why companies like my own are reaching out to Alaska and other locales throughout the world to acquire this important feedstock of material. We at International Paper consume 12,000 tons of recovered paper 365 days a year, 4 million tons of paper annually, and that would account for the equivalent of 180,000 semi-tractor loads of recovered paper. We do that to produce new recycled content paper... Some of the paper comes from Valley Community for Recyling Solutions," Grogan said.

Click here to listen to Pete Grogan.

Grogan said in his 35 years of experience he had never been in a LEED-certified recycling facility. LEED is Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design. It is an internationally recognized "green" building certification system. The Mat-Su Borough led the way in Alaska with building the first LEED-certified school in the state. Now a Mat-Su recycling center continues upholding the high standards of energy efficiency and sustainability. Former Borough Manager John Duffy championed the pursuit of LEED standards while manager.

Mat-Su Borough Economic Development Director Dave Hanson said the ribbon cutting is part of a global momentum to recycle and reuse manufactured materials. "The market for paper and recycled paper is on fire. It's predicted over the next 20 years it's going to rise very rapidly... It's going to be amazing. This will affect us nationally because paper by volume is the number one export of the United States."

Click here to listen to Dave Hanson.

Hanson said Mollie Boyer, the Executive Director of VCRS, was the soul of the project.

In an address filled with wit and correlations between the recent lunar eclipse and garbage, Mat-Su College Director Talis Colberg told Boyer that the recycling center came to be because she has the gift of speech,  a particular speech.

"Mollie has what I call "the speech," which she has perfected and delivered over and over again to every chamber and rotary, person in the Vagabond Blues, passenger in the airline waiting areas, attorneys general who might be encountered by her, mayors who might be encountered by her, college directors who might be encountered by her. You know the speech if you've been around her very long: tires can be turned into building material, homes can be constructed out of garbage, old shoes don't necessarily have to look alike to fit. Even if properly prepared garbage can be a good meal."

Click here to listen to Talis Colberg.

Boyer was grinning and hugging many supporters. An upswell of cheers met her when she approached the lecturn.

"So here we are today, in Chanlyut Circle, Chanlyut in Athabaskan means New Beginning, on Jan. 6 a day of revelation celebrating something larger than our own everydayness, celebrating together the opening of this new community created recycling resource recovery facility. A beautiful example of our community working together for the longterm good of all. Together we are turning it around.

Click here to listen to Mollie Boyer.

For more information call Valley Community for Recyclying Solutions at 745-5544.

PHOTOS:Top Mollie Boyer snips the plastic ribbon with over-sized scissors. Left to right, Elizabeth Ripley-Mat-Su Health Foundation; Pete Grogan-International Paper;Talis Colber-Mat-Su College; Mollie Boyer-VCRS; Dave Hanson-Mat-Su Borough; Kevin Brown-VCRS;Assemblymember Warren Keogh. By Patty Sullivan/MSB.

Middle photo: Pete Grogan with International Paper says there is global demand for recyclables. Photo by Carol Vardeman/MSB.

Bottom photo: A huddle of chefs, the Job Corps Culinary Arts students supplied several sheet cakes with Chef Graham. Photo by Patty Sullivan/MSB.

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