MONTREAL (RecyclingMonster): On a hot August day at the Alaska State Fair, almost everyone in attendance will be sipping on refreshments.

For most, it’s as simple as buying them, drinking them, throwing them in one of the many recycling bins around the grounds, and never thinking about them again. For one Palmer family, however, it’s an opportunity to help the environment while still enjoying a day together at the fair.

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“This is the first year we got talked into helping,” Mayme Troutman said with a smile.

A Palmer family joins fair recycling teams

She, eleven-year-old son Mark and eight-year-old daughter Helen are one of several recycling teams that rove the fairgrounds, picking cans and bottles out of the recycling bins and bringing them to the fair’s sorting station.

“I think it’s really important,” Mayme said. “Most people want to do the right thing, do the recycling, put the trash in the trash. So it’s good just to help out keeping everything organized.”

“Having these and helping the world!” was grabber waving Helen’s enthusiastic response to her favorite part of the job. Armed with trash grabbers, the trio moved from bin to bin with a wagon filled with bags in tow.

Recyclables move to the sorting station

Once a bag filled up, they took it to the sorting station and the third member of this three-generation cleanup effort.

Mayme Troutman’s mother-in-law Pamella Meekin oversees the final bit of sorting, as well as the pickup from Valley Community for Recycling Solutions and Alaska Waste.

Fair recycling program marks 25 years

Meekin, who worked on the fair’s administration side for forty years, is in year 25 of spearheading the fair’s recycling program.

“I’m using them kind of as an example,” she said of her grandchildren. “There are so many families that want to come and have it be a family event, so I’m going to kind of restructure this so that we can do that.”

Meekin encouraged families like that to volunteer for next year’s fair.

“Go ahead and have it be a family thing,” she encouraged. “It’ll be a little different, you’ll be limited to what the children can do, but it’s still going to be a great experience.”

Children take part in the cleanup effort

The children, for their part, seemed to be enjoying it.

“Help out and make the world clean,” Helen summarized.

The family’s participation illustrates how recycling work at a large public event can also become a shared community and family activity, while helping collect and sort cans and bottles throughout the fairgrounds.

The Alaska State Fair recycling effort brings together volunteers across generations to collect and sort cans and bottles, while highlighting the opportunity for families to take part in a shared cleanup experience.