Air Force officials reduce waste with recycling program

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Vincent Borden
  • 386th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFNS) --  Base officials here helped the environment by expanding their recycling program from plastic bottles and aluminum cans to include hazardous materials, chlorofluorocarbons, metals such as copper and steel, and cardboard boxes.

The program resulted in payments that have amounted to $95,000 so far this year for officials of the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing at this air base in Southwest Asia.

Base members support more than 2,900 Airmen and coalition forces located in the area; however, they also produce a lot of waste. But a contractor who works for a consult company with U.S. Air Forces Central came up with a solution to the waste problem by thinking green.

Kwaku Siriboe is the sole manager of the 386th AEW Environmental Flight and runs the base's recycling program. He handles all the hazardous waste material the base produces, finding ways to get rid of the used oil, old batteries and tons of garbage that comes with feeding thousands of people day in and day out. And he's found a way to make it lucrative.

Working with a local recycling company, Mr. Siriboe improved a program that started with the problem of disposing of tons of empty water bottles discarded by Airmen trying to stay hydrated in the region's arid climate. He has expanded the project by recycling metals and boxes. The range of items that can be recycled allows individuals and workcenters of all types around the base to get involved in the program.

"If we could successfully collect even 70 percent of the items that could be recycled, we could make a lot of money," Mr. Siriboe said.

But Mr. Siriboe isn't just concerned with the dividends. He collects waste material and items that don't pay dividends, such as wooden pallets and old paints products, and finds environmentally responsible solutions to their disposal as well. For those items, he usually hands them off to the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Office, which dispose of them locally in environmentally responsible ways. The effort reduces the total footprint the wing has on the Persian Gulf region as a whole.

To collect recyclables, base officials have placed large metal bins are located in high traffic areas throughout the base, such as the dormitory living area, the dining facility and the Logistics Staging Area. The bins are color coded and labeled; blue bins are for plastics, white bins are for cardboard, and the occasional red bin is for old electronics.

The proceeds from the recycling program are distributed to each group in the wing to supplement morale, wellness and recreation programs. But even without the money paid from recycle products, the program is a success. It allows the base to get rid of its waste products and hazardous materials virtually free of charge.

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