Discarded plastic marine debris washed ashore on the coastline of Alaska, a health hazard to the fish, wildlife and water, is a growing problem in Alaska.
And back in the summer of 2021, Alaska inventor Patrick Simpson got a first-hand look at the extent of that pollution in Prince William Sound. Simpson joined the Prince William Sound Stewardship Foundation for part of a project to remove layers of such debris that had washed up on Knight Island and the Elrington/Bainbridge areas.
That summer, the foundation removed 3,000 pounds of trash along nearly 100 miles of shoreline.
With a background in computer technology, Simpson was embarked on a mission to recycle those mounds of trash into construction lumber he named Grizzly Wood.
Simpson grew up in the Prince William Sound fishing community of Cordova and from 1974 to 1985 he worked summers and most school breaks as a commercial fisherman on the family fishing boats, but with an acknowledged problem of getting seasick, he instead pursued a degree in computer science at the University of California, San Diego.
In 1993 he founded Scientific Fishery Systems Inc. in Anchorage, to develop technologies for more efficient fisheries.
Simpson’s efforts over the last few years have won him grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
His current business, Alaska Plastic Recovery, headquartered in Palmer, Alaska, stockpiles supersacks of plastic trash, on a large lot with space donated by Triverus LLC, a producer of high efficiency cleaning and recovery technology vehicles.
Other plastics recovered from Alaska’s coastlines come from communities including Homer, Seward and Soldotna on the Kenai Peninsula. Simpson also recently opened a drop-off point for discarded plastics in midtown Anchorage at a former municipal trash disposal building.
Last year, Simpson performed pilot demonstrations on how his plastic wood is made and how it can be used in construction in Anchorage, Cordova and several communities on the Kenai Peninsula. He’s also working with the Southeast Alaska communities of Haines and Yakutat.
Benefits of Grizzly Wood range from keeping all that plastic out of landfills to the fact that it is chemical free, does not absorb water, is rot resistant and insect proof.
Determined to lower the environmental footprint of all these plastics, much of it coming from the commercial fishing industry, Simpson designed a way to put #1 polyethylene terephthalate (PET/PETE);
#2 high density polyethylene (HDPE) and #5 polypropylene (PP) into a grinder and then extruders and transform them first into tiny plastic beads and from there into plastic lumber.
PET/PETE is a clear hard plastic often used for single -use food and drink containers from water bottles to peanut butter containers. HDPE is often used for household cleaners, buckets, shampoo bottles and yogurt containers. PP is a plastic commonly used for caps some yogurt containers, medicine bottles and straws.
According to the EPA data from 2018—the most recent available—Americans generate about 23.1 pounds of plastic annually. With the population of Alaska estimated at 731,545 in 2020, that adds up to 16.9 million pounds of just residential plastic waste annually in that state, Simpson said.
The amount of plastic wastes going into the ocean worldwide annually adds up to 75 -125 million pounds annually, he said.
Simpson has been busy working with environmental entities and others to collect discarded plastics so he can turn them into Grizzly Wood. Another big source of plastics for his lumber comes from Hilcorp, which is engaged in the oil industry on Alaska’s North Slope.
Hilcorp uses large plastic caps made of very durable plastic as pipe-thread protectors to protect the ends of drilling pipes. The company has for well over a year now been delivering super sacks of these plastic caps to the headquarters of Alaska Plastic Recovery in Palmer.
The product, made of 100 % recycled plastics, is available in half a dozen sizes, for outdoor construction use in projects ranging from buildings to picnic tables, bike racks, signposts, fencing, retaining walls park benches and trail rehabilitation.
And when worn down, after many years of use, Grizzly Wood can be recycled into new plastic lumber up to seven times, he said.
In Homer, Alaska, a fishing community that bills itself as the halibut capital of the world, residents are not only engaged in collecting discarded plastics for recycling by Simpson’s firm, but purchasing his Grizzly Wood for use on the community’s trail systems.
The Homer Trails Alliance uses Grizzly Wood for two different applications, board of directors member Billy Day said.
First, it was used as underlayment for a product called geobloc which is used to span wetlands. In this application Grizzly Wood serves as a nailer at each panel’s seam and helps to float the geobloc, preventing it from sinking into the bog.
They then fill and cover the cells with wood chips providing a firm, dry trail surface across wet ground. Day said that they anticipate that the Grizzly Wood will last indefinitely as it is not exposed to either sunlight or the wear and tear of foot traffic.
After working with the product in that capacity, HTA became confident that Grizzly Wood could hold up to the elements and decided to do a test project using it to construct 200 feet of boardwalk across a notorious bad section of wet trail.
HTA volunteers used four-by-fours over salvaged steel shipping crate frames to construction the foundation and covered them with two-by-six decking. After a couple of months, Grizzly Wood appears to be holding up great, even to occasional traffic from ATV maintenance equipment, he said.
“Additionally,” he added, “HTA likes the idea that we are supporting the concept of turning trash from the landfill into a useful product benefitting the community in multiple ways.”
Margaret Bauman can be reached at margie@maritimepublishing.com