Wal-Mart Offers Recycling for Fairbanks

In the absence of a community recycling program, the Fairbanks, Alaska Wal-Mart has stepped in to offer local residents the opportunity to bring their recyclables to the store. Wal-Mart employees will manage the community recycling program. They will accept common recyclables, such as plastic, newspaper, aluminum, and cardboard. Items are loaded onto Wal-Mart trucks, transported by train across the state, and then shipped to the state of Washington for recycling.

It is the transport of items that has prohibited the Fairbanks community from establishing a feasible recycling program of its own in the past. However, since Wal-Mart already has the logistics in place for its store recycling initiative, it will simply include the community's recyclables alongside its own. "Managers and associates at the retail store say recycling falls in line with corporate efforts to reduce the corporation’s environmental footprint...(and) we’re all excited to be able to help the community out."