Green Star of Interior Alaska

Green Star of Interior Alaska is a local nonprofit serving the Fairbanks North Star Borough. Our programs are designed to encourage reuse of materials, reduce unnecessary waste, and increase recycling efforts in the Fairbanks area. We provide electronics recycling for businesses and households, as well as event recycling for special events large and small. We also focus on outreach and education to the community with programs like our Fairbanks Recycling Guide, presentations at schools, businesses, and organizations, and our new recycling curriculum, to be released for local elementary schools in the fall of 2015.
Green Star consists of a small staff of one full-time Executive Director and several part-time staff, a dedicated board of directors, and an amazing group of volunteers, without whom none of our programs would be possible! We invite you to learn more about our organization and join us as a volunteer or member, or partner with us in many other ways to help make our community a greener and more sustainable place.

• Our Mission - Green Star is a local non-profit that encourages and enables our community to reduce waste and increase recycling.
• Core Purpose - Reduce Local Waste

Core Values

• Environmental Stewardship
• Local
• Educate and Inspire
• At Home & At Work t
• Collaboration & Partnership
• Innovation

Nondiscrimination Statement:

Green Star of Interior Alaska actively recruits, engages and serves members of our community regardless of race, culture, ethnicity, age, religion, socio-economic status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, and disability. Green Star does not discriminate in the provision of service or support in its policies or actions.Green Star‘s Board of Directors will periodically compare their own composition to the demographics of their region using census data in order to aspire towards reflecting the diversity of the local community.
In keeping with Green Star’s values regarding nondiscrimination and with applicable federal law, explicit statements that require the organization to embrace the broadest possible definition of inclusion and nondiscrimination shall be included in its bylaws, operating policies and procedures, and other relevant policy documents.
Green Star will reach out to and welcome the community at large through our recruitment, marketing, public education, and awareness activities. Green Star will strive to support recruitment and retention of a diverse and inclusive board of directors and staff.

Green Star offers the only electronics recycling program in the Interior. Fairbanks North Star Borough residents and organizations can drop off their unwanted or defective electronics at our warehouse free of charge. This program is supported by a generous grant from FNSB, upon recommendation by the FNSB Recycling Commission. A small fee will be charged for electronics received from outside the Borough.

Program Basics

Green Star has been providing the Fairbanks community with special event recycling services since 2006. Initially, this program focused primarily on our partnership with the Tanana Valley State Fair Association to run a recycling program for the annual fair. In 2012, Green Star began expanding this program to provide recycling services for other large and small community events.

What is E-Waste and E-Recycling?

E-waste is a term that means unwanted electronic materials such as obsolete computers and cell phones. E-Recycling is an abbreviation for electronics recycling.
At our Electronics Recycling Depot we accept most items that plug in or run on a battery, including computer, monitors, printers, scanners, copy machines, TVs, VCR/DVD players, stereos, microwaves, and other small kitchen appliances. We also collect household batteries, printer ink cartridges, CDs, DVDs, and floppy discs.
A few things we cannot accept include: vacuum cleaners, smoke alarms, fluorescent light bulbs, exit signs, and VHS/cassette tapes.

What happens to my electronics after I turn them in for recycling?

A team of dedicated volunteers carefully breaks down, sorts, and packages all the electronics received for recycling, in order to prepare them for shipment to our electronics recycler, Total Reclaim, Inc (TRI). We follow the packaging guidelines set by TRI to ensure that the materials reach their Anchorage warehouse safely. These guidelines include removing all cables and wires; sorting materials by type of item (computers, monitors, TVs, cables/wires, etc.); stacking and wrapping large items securely on pallets; sorting, preparing, and packaging batteries by type for safe transportation. Our volunteers also remove and break down all extraneous paper and plastic packaging for recycling at local recycling centers. A lot of work is involved in this process and we keep our volunteers very busy.
The prepared electronics are then stored at our warehouse until we have collected enough material to fill a 40-foot trailer. Once we have produced approximately 20 completed pallets, they are loaded onto a trailer donated by our program partner – Air Land Transport – and shipped to the TRI facility in Anchorage. From there, TRI is responsible for shipping the electronics to their final destination – the main TRI recycling plant in Seattle, Washington. Once the materials reach Seattle, some of the items collected (e.g. newer computers) may be refurbished and offered as used electronics. The rest of the items are broken down into their component materials and prepared for reuse on the commodities markets. The recycling process separates CRTs and other computer equipment into component parts – such as leaded glass, precious metals, non-precious metals, and plastics – and makes these materials available to manufacturers. TRI researches all of their downstream vendors to ensure they are environmentally responsible. Our goal is to promote recycling and proper disposal of unwanted electronic equipment in ways that protect the health and well-being of the communities where electronics are produced, de-manufactured, or discarded.