When Anchorage’s Midtown Transfer Station moved across the street into a brand new facility, it left behind the old transfer station and administrative offices. Now, both buildings have new functions, the administrative office is a homeless shelter, and the tipping floor of the former transfer station has become a place to drop off organic material.
The building has a new name: the Materials Recovery Facility, and a new purpose: to divert both plastics and organics from the landfill and turn them into something useful. It’s a pilot program that is set to run through the end of October. Residents and commercial companies can drop off things like grass clippings, small yard debris, and other organics at a cost of $20 per truckload or $40 for a truck and trailer load. A bin outside the facility accepts food scraps for free.
Acting Solid Waste Services Director Kelli Toth said the organic material will be trucked to a farm in Palmer that makes topsoil and compost, a better fit, she said, than putting them in the landfill. “Putting food scraps and organics into the landfill creates a lot of landfill gas, and it also generates a lot of leachate, and it also takes up space in the landfill,” Toth said.