Between the beer garden and the booths at the farmers market, Wednesdays in Soldotna Creek Park generate a lot of trash.
Jan Wallace noticed much of the waste in the bins was recyclable. She’s part of ReGroup — a local non-profit that has been working for 33 years to “Reuse, Reduce, and Recycle” waste on the peninsula. Today, ReGroup has a station at Soldotna Creek Park to help market- and concert-goers sort recyclables, compost and trash every Wednesday.
Volunteers established ReGroup in the fall of 1989.
“It started as a grassroots group who cared about the community and the environment," Wallace said.
By July of ‘92, they were sorting recyclables in a van behind the Kenai Peninsula Borough building.
That same year, the borough set up an official recycling station at Central Peninsula Landfill. By the time the borough took control of the landfill in 2005, it was recycling over 400 tons of mixed paper and cardboard alone, in addition to other recyclables like aluminum.
“It’s amazing the amount of aluminum that we're getting," Wallace said. "But there still a lot of aluminum that ends up in the garbage cans, which I wish was not the case."
ReGroup is always working hard to eliminate waste and educate. Just last year, around 840 tons were recycled and kept out of our landfills, according to the group. A 2021 event put on by ReGroup eliminated an additional 31,100 pounds of electronic waste.
Wallace said when you recycle, you’re not only reusing materials to eliminate waste, but also saving space in landfills — and saving money.
There are a lot of raw materials that go into making cardboard, for example. Wallace said recycling one ton of cardboard can save up to 46 gallons of oil, 17 trees and 7,000 gallons of water.
“Everybody can do their part," Wallace said. "Maybe a small part, but they can do their part and encourage others."
You can check out ReGroup’s Waste Station — and help recycle — on Wednesdays at Soldotna Creek Park.
