CITC Teaches STEM with Plastic Recycling

Cook Inlet Tribal Council (CITC) opened its first Anchorage fab lab in 2013. When the lab outgrew that space, it relocated to a commercial building in the Muldoon neighborhood. The new, expanded “super fab lab” donated its original, small-scale plastic recycling unit to the Prince William Sound village of Tatitlek. The name “Denełchin” comes from Dena’ina Athabascan, meaning to make something.

Today, the Denełchin Lab is one of twenty-four fab labs in Alaska. During the fiscal year that ended in September 2024, CITC counted 1,051 kids participating in programs at Denełchin Lab.

The brightly lit lab includes 3D printers using both resin and powder; etching machines; a wood shop; and an extruder and sheet press for shaping recycled plastic. Learning to use the equipment requires attention to detail and adherence to strict safety protocols. One machine is so loud, for instance, that it requires use of double ear protection, a mask, and face shield during operation.

“Safety is always our number one priority,” Vo says. “It’s important that students pay attention to detail and are aware of what behaviors they’re doing. If they’re not aware and aren’t able to maintain themselves in that space, they wouldn’t be allowed in there.” She adds: “It’s also important that students are safe so they are able to have fun using the equipment that we have.”

Recycling program lead Marie Francis says students rise to the challenge. “At least with the projects in the recycling lab, especially the high school youth are pretty meticulous. If one of those fishes has a funky bend, they notice and they will want to make a new fish.”

Vo says traditional practices like storytelling sometimes shape how instructors teach students about safety. Lab staff also weave cultural knowledge and traditions throughout the lessons.

“We generally encourage and help them integrate cultural knowledge with using the technology,” Vo says. When sorting plastic for the lab’s recycling program, for instance, middle and high school youth learned words in Dena’ina Qenaga. Bins for sorting shredded #2 and #5 plastics use Dena’ina words for each color.

Fish-Shaped Keychains for a Lifetime

Francis says the lab currently processes about sixty pounds of plastic a month. Community members can donate clean plastic items with the #2 symbol or #5 symbol on them during the lab’s operating hours, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.

The program accepts plastics not readily collected elsewhere in Anchorage; curbside recycling takes #1 and #2 plastics in the form of blow-molded bottles and jugs, but the fab lab is not as picky about the form of high density polyethylene. Polypropylene, marked with a #5, is accepted at the Anchorage Recycling Center, but CITC and Alaska Plastic Recovery can give the material a second life.

Denełchin Lab especially prizes donations of colored plastic, which students have turned into objects like fish-shaped keychains and earrings. They cut other items, like butterfly shapes or the pieces of a small stool, from multicolored sheets of plastic molded in the lab’s sheet press.

Francis says the program’s goal is to “make recycling fun and accessible.” To judge from student reactions, they’re succeeding.

“Their responses [have been] very positive, especially with making the fishes,” Francis says. “They get to pick their favorite colors and be artistic. And while they’re operating the equipment, we get to have a conversation about why it is important to recycle.”

During the Native Youth Olympic Games in late April, youth came to the Denełchin Lab for a celebration. The games draw Alaska Native youth to Anchorage from all over the state. When lab staff “offered to do a fish keychain” for them, it led some youth to talk about the waste problems in their community, Francis says.

The federal grant that funds the lab’s recycling program seeks to address some of that rural waste. Francis says the US Environmental Protection Agency grant includes setting up five other recycling programs throughout the state.

The funding covers sending recycling equipment to five rural communities that normally have to ship waste out. Francis says, “They will be able to recycle their plastic, rather than relying on backhaul… and will be able to make their own products.”