Green Star Competes for a New Truck

Green Star will be competing Thursday, June 28.

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By Heather Hintze
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Story Created: Jun 27, 2012 at 6:50 PM AKDT

Story Updated: Jun 27, 2012 at 7:11 PM AKDT

ANCHORAGE - Green Star is the next Anchorage nonprofit to compete for a new truck through Toyota’s "100 Cars for Good" facebook contest.

Community Outreach Coordinator, Christina Grande, knows recycling is a dirty job.

“Here’s a piece of clothing. Ugh, it’s underwear!” She exclaimed while separating trash from recyclables.

She and Josh Sherwood have to sift through the bins because people don’t always pay attention to the signs that say “cans and bottles only.”

“Anything else in there can kind of contaminate the whole bag and throw everything off. So Josh and I try to come out here once and a while to try to really manage the assortment in there,” said Grande.

Josh agreed adding, “Our goal is to keep all the materials that we possible can out of our landfill. So we're always striving to collect as many recyclable materials as we can.”

Green Star has an agreement with the Anchorage Downtown Partnership. Grande and Sherwood haul away the city’s recyclables, but right now they have to use their own vehicles.

“At first you're thinking, how bad can it be to haul recycling bags in your vehicle and drop it off? But after a while, this is the public that you're dealing with, and you have a lot of cans and bottles that aren't really finished so there's a lot of liquid, it's coming through the bags,” said Grande.

She digs through the dumpsters, handing soggy bag after bag to Sherwood, who piles the bags high in her Jeep.

“If the camera could pick up the smell too... and it's just dripping with, whatever is in here. If you can see inside the bins, it's a pool of soda and juice,” said Grande.

She puts a tarp in the back to catch all the leftover liquids so they don’t seep into the interior. Grande says a new truck would mean she could keep her car clean and it would help cut down on the number of trips to the recycling center.

Green Star will compete against four other charities from around the country in a Facebook contest on Thursday, June 28. You can cast your ballot until 8 p.m.
 

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To: Mike said on Thursday, Jun 28 at 10:21 AM

People like you are the reason the world is in the mess it is in today.

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mike said on Wednesday, Jun 27 at 8:08 PM

go and find a real job save the world on your time quit thinking this is something everyone is on board with

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