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Alaska
Waste is teaming up with the local Boy Scouts Troop 626 to collect dead
Christmas trees. The partnership and project came to fruition in less than 24
hours and will benefit both the borough landfill and the Boy Scouts.
Rick
Vahl is the district manager for Alaska Waste, which manages the landfill. When
Vahl realized earlier this week that there were no programs in town that would
make use of the trees, he jumped into action. He remembered that the Boy Scouts
used to have a program that collected the trees for donations. Steve Paulson is
the Scout Master for the local troop and says that they troop stopped
collecting the trees several years ago after it became too much work for the
small troop, which has 15 members aged 11 to 17. However, the troop has been
holding bake sales to raise money for a big trip; They want to travel to West Virginia for the
National Scout Jamboree in July 2013
Vahl
called up Paulson and a plan was hatched.
Together
Troop 626 and Alaska Waste will collect the trees. The Boy Scouts will get to
ask for a donation for each tree and Alaska Waste keeps the them out
of the landfill, which is already nearing capacity and is scheduled for
expansion.
Vahl
says the project is a great partnership and hopes it will continue.
-- (Trees Collection 1 :13 "Hopefully next year we can have a little more
time to plan because the Boy Scouts are real interested in doing these
environmental-type projects because it diverts waste from the landfill, the
Dumpsters and the ditches.")
Paulson
says the troop has worked with the Island Trails Network in the past to make
use of the dead trees and perhaps next year, with a little more planning, they
can get involved with them again.
-- (Trees Collection 2 :14 "Thre's a lot of things you can do with trees.
Christmas trees, erosion control was our main focus. Placing them on areas of
the Buskin River for example where there was
erosion happening, that seemed to work pretty well.")
From
1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on the next three Saturdays, the Boy Scouts will have a set up
in the Safeway parking lot. People can bring their trees by and leave them for
a $5 donation. If they'd rather not make the trip, they can call Alaska Waste
and arrange to have their tree picked up for a $10 donation. All the money will
go toward the scouts' trip.
As
the trees are collected they will be moved to a vacant lot near the little
league baseball field. On January 14th the trees will provide fuel for
a bonfire to celebrate the end of the holiday season and a successful
partnership.
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