Recycling may benefit the environment, but it doesn't pay in Alaska, local recycling experts say.

"Shipping cost takes profit margin out," said Hank Bartos, an active member in the recycling community.

According to a 2005 report from the Fairbanks North Star Borough, transporting recycled material from Fairbanks to Seattle costs $70 per ton. With Fairbanks producing about 85,000 tons of municipal solid waste each year, it would cost nearly $6 million to send the waste to Seattle to be recycled.

Alaska doesn't have an efficient recycling market for used goods, Bartos said. Seattle is the closest market. But Bartos said because of the weather conditions shipping salvage only occurs a few times a year.

"Basically there isn't enough profit to make it work," he said.

The costs have prevented Fairbanks from implementing effective recycling programs, according to the Northern Alaska Environmental Center.

"Obstacles to implementing glass and plastic recycling include the lack of local markets for these materials, and the prohibitive expense of transporting them down to Anchorage or beyond," the nonprofit's Web site says.

Bernie Karl, the manager of Chena Hot Springs Resort and another active member of the local recycling community, shares Bartos' opinion.

"We don't make a profit primarily because we are so far away from the market, and it costs money," Karl said.

In 1994, the now-defunct Good Sense Recycling Project in Fairbanks collected more than 30 tons of recycled goods over six months, according to a report filed with the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. A local recycling broker, Sandy's Recycling, picked up the materials.

"After a few months, Sandy's, the recycling broker, decided it was not economically viable to process such large amounts of low-end materials [glass and paper] -- given the high shipping costs," the report says.

The project died soon after. Not much has changed since then in terms of shipping, recycling advocates say.

Karl doesn't believe cost should be the deciding factor. Alaskans should realize they are breathing, living mammals and are using up resources, he said.

"Everything should be recycled and reused," he said.

Both of these men agree people in Alaska cannot benefit financially from recycling mostly because of the state's location.

But they both say there are other ways to benefit from recycling, such as for an alternative energy sources.

"Knowledge should be shared everywhere," Karl said.

Bartos agreed.

"We need to look at the economic realities of the situation," he said.

In Karl's view, education can play a key role in changing how people use recycled goods.

"I challenge the university to offer students to major in alternative energy," Karl said. "Knowledge should be shared everywhere."

That way, when the current supply of energy runs dry, people will be educated to use other fuel sources, he said.

Some organizations have already started looking into alternate uses for recycled goods in Alaska. Eielson Air Force Base, Bartos noted, has a machine that burns paper as an energy source for its power plant.

Another machine on base grinds glass down for the base to construct roads with.

But a fire in January damaged the machine, temporarily shutting it down.

Bartos said it is possible to make a profit recycling. Just not in Alaska.

"An individual up here at one time was taking glass and melting it down to make tiles that he would then sell," Bartos said, though declining to say who. The person later moved to the Lower 48 because good business opportunities opened up and he started his own company, he said.

So there is a profit in the actual business of finding alternate energy sources, and it saves the planet too, he said.

Karl would also like to see our used goods made into other items.

"Honestly, I believe that nothing should be thrown away," he said.

People will eventually see their recycled paper and wood being turned into electricity, he said.

"Glass would be ground up for hydroponically grown plants," he said.

Karl also said FNSB Mayor Jim Whitaker will be making some positive changes this coming summer that should increase recycling in the interior Alaska area.

The Fairbanks North Star Borough is considering a "waste-to-energy" project that would convert biomass and paper into energy, according to the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.

The plan is estimated to cost $1.35 million annually, the News-Miner reports.

"This mayor is in tune to make a difference," Karl said.