ANCHORAGE, Alaska—
They don’t use any fancy machines or conveyor belts, just a bulldozer to crush glass. That’s all it takes at the Kenai Peninsula Borough’s central landfill in Soldotna.
"We end up using the crushed glass for road building material, as a sub-base material," said Solid Waste Director Jack Maryott.
That sub-base material is used on the dirt roads into and out of the landfill. Normally the borough has to buy gravel for this process at a cost of $17 per yard.
"On this particular site, there is just really silty sand, so there is no gravel on site, so to really construct some good solid roads we need sub base material.”
Reusing the glass saves the borough 75 to 100 cubic yards of space each year.
The borough has been reusing glass since the early 90s' and some of the crushed glass is used to control drainage problems at the landfill.
"It would be hard to justify continuing this program if we had to ship it off site or have an on site use for it."
Glass is accepted at all transfer facilities across the borough, before being taken to Soldotna or Homer for crushing.
