Long-time Fairbanks residents know Clean Up Day has been a spring tradition for decades, motivated by the melting snow uncovering a winter’s worth of litter. Even in the midst of a global pandemic, Fairbanks refused to break from tradition.
This year, 187 teams signed up over 1300 volunteers to participate in Clean Up Day (or rather, Clean Up Week!), helping clean up hundreds of roadways all over town. What other volunteer effort do you know in Fairbanks that gets that many people out participating in the same cause? This huge volunteer force picked up 10.2 tons of trash in Fairbanks – that’s nearly 1000 yellow bags! The most astonishing fact is that these numbers are comparable to past years, meaning that despite being threatened by a global pandemic, Fairbanks still rallied and got the job done. Green Star did our part and had staff out cleaning up Phillips Field Rd. on May 8th, and Goldhill Rd. and a section of the pipeline on May 9th.
Not only did we have over 1000 residents help clean up Fairbanks this year, but many companies and their employees volunteered behind the scenes to transport the yellow bags to the landfill. The volunteers who pick up the yellow bags on Clean Up Day call themselves the “Heavy Haulers”, and they deserve a special shout out! The crew and the pickup route are organized by Justin Cowles at Cowles Heating. This year, the “Heavy Haulers” included: Alaska Waste, Florcraft Carpet One, Denali Group, C&R Pipe, Horst Expediting, Skidmore Machine, Shredway, Frontier Supply, and MacCheyne’s Carpet Plus. Thank you all for doing the “heavy lifting” to make this effort possible!
Green Star was proud to lead the organizing effort this year, joined by volunteers from United Way of the Tanana Valley, Alaska Department of Transportation, Cowles Heating, Midnight Sun Council Boy Scouts of America, Greater Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce, FNSB Central Recycling Facility, Explore Fairbanks and The Radio Station. We started meeting back in March to orchestrate this momentous effort. Green Star will be heading the team again next year, and we are hoping to implement some exciting new additions to the organizing effort, including more prizes for teams, transfer site drop off locations, and an online map showing already claimed roads viewable during registration. Save the date for Clean Up Day 2021 May 8th.
If you still have yellow bags and want to get out and pick up any trash you see remaining on road ways, please drop them off at the Fairbanks North Star Borough Landfill at 455 Sanduri St. The tipping fees are waived if you are helping with the clean up and bring your trash in yellow bags! Your trash can still be counted towards the total.