FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. — The Fort Leonard Wood Recycling Center celebrated America Recycles Day, a Keep America Beautiful national initiative, Wednesday by accepting e-waste, such as batteries, cell phones and other electronics, in addition to items commonly recycled there.
According to Robert Schultz, Directorate of Public Works environmental protection assistant, the center had a total of 68 people drop off items during the event, collecting more than a ton of e-waste and 86 pounds of batteries.
Schultz said when most people think about e-waste, they think about computers or televisions, but the center here will accept almost anything electrically generated.
“We take televisions, toasters, lamps and old kitchen items. How many times have you thrown out an old kitchen item? The problem with that is it ends up in a landfill. We are collaborating with a company that separates the e-waste and removes the electric components. It reduces what goes into the landfill and recycles it, so that we can reuse it again,” Schultz said. “We have seen a variety of different and unusual items. I have seen electric fence posts. Somebody dropped off an old microwave, like one of the originals from the 1970s. And one time, people dropped off an electric kiln.”
Sophie Stoner, a recycling specialist, who separates and packs the recyclables on post, said America Recycles Day is one of her favorite days to work.
“Items trickle in throughout the year, but today, we get to see a lot of people and get a large volume of recyclables on America Recycles Day. The more people we see today, the better. I love to look out of the building and see a line of people,” Stoner said. “It is unfortunate that a lot of people throw recyclables in the trash. For four years, I have been sorting and baling recyclable material here. We want to make sure it gets where it needs to go to be re-used and keep it out of the landfill.”
Beyond the legal and ethical reasons to recycle, Schultz said the post generates significant revenue from recycling that supports many Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation projects.
“A lot of people don’t realize when the post hosts the Fourth of July celebration, that is almost entirely paid for by recycling funds. Every time you recycle, you are enhancing life on post. Another big one we helped pay for is the RV park. This is real money we put back into the community,” Schultz said.
According to Schultz, Fort Leonard Wood currently recycles more than 50 percent of total solid waste annually.
Fort Leonard Wood generates more than 1,700 tons of recyclable material each year, he said in about three years, that would be the same weight as, “an average U.S. Navy destroyer.”
Although the installation does well with recycling, Schultz still sees many missed opportunities.
“If we could collectively increase our recycling efforts, funding sources for FMWR items would increase as well as benefitting the environment,” Schultz said.
He said one of the most common misconceptions about the Recycling Center is only people working and living on post can use it.
“A lot of folks that live off post have the idea that our facility isn’t available to them. Anyone with access to Fort Leonard Wood can bring items to the Recycling Center. They can save money by using our facility because a lot of the outside communities have to charge people to do e-waste processing. We have built it into our program in a way that we do not charge at all,” Schultz said.
There are three recycling drop-off locations on Fort Leonard Wood. The primary collection point is the Recycling Center, located in Bldg. 2549 on Ordnance Drive. An attendant is available from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays at the center. There are also drop-off bins available 24/7 that can be found outside the fence of the Recycling Center, the Main Exchange parking lot and the Mini Mall parking lot.
Commonly accepted items include glass, aluminum, white paper, cardboard and plastic types 1 and 2. For a complete list of items that are regularly recycled on Fort Leonard Wood, visit the DPW recycling website.
| Date Taken: | 11.15.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 11.17.2023 10:33 |
| Story ID: | 458043 |
| Location: | FORT LEONARD WOOD, MISSOURI, US |
| Web Views: | 41 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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