The base’s recycling program is now in full swing, following nine months of implemention and acclimation to the program.

There are about 200 blue and yellow recycle containers at various sites around the installation. The yellow containers are for aluminum cans and the blue bins are for plastic bottles.

“A lot of people mistake the plastic bins for ‘anything plastic’ but, that’s not the case,” said Jerry Collier, the base’s recycling manager. “We only recycle the plastic bottles, not the plastic bands or wrappers.”

Glass bottles are frequently misplaced in the recycle bins, but since glass isn’t recycled here, they need to be disposed of in the regular green trash cans. Mr. Collier said glass isn’t recycled here because a glass furnace isn’t available.

“You’d be surprised at what we pull out of these things,” Mr. Collier said. “We’ve filtered out shoes, clothes and always Styrofoam food containers.”

Once the recycle containers have been sorted through, the materials are placed into 55-gallon drums and compressed into four-inch circular shaped objects, nicknamed biscuits.

In a month’s timeframe, Mr. Collier said the recycling center usually crushes about a ton of plastic bottles and about three times that much in aluminum cans.

One of the base recycling center’s new initiatives is bringing recycling down to the unit level. There are about 80 extra recycling containers available for units to pick up and place in high-traffic areas.

In addition to the smaller recycleable items, the base recycling center also disposes of large materials such as cardboard, other types of aluminum and any kind of steel.

“We can shred a whole wall locker if need be,” Mr. Collier said. “Everything that leaves this base must be in a nonreusable condition.”

The base recycling center has a partnership with the host nation for most of the recycled materials, whether they’re sent to a downtown facility or a landfill.

Some of the items usually sent to the landfill are “mass reduction” items. These are things that can’t be recycled but are expired, out of date or otherwise unusable.

“For example, we can reduce pallets into toothpicks or get rid of old computer hard drives and motherboards,” Mr. Collier said.

While recycling is environmentally friendly, he also reminded patrons of the importance of recycling.

“The reason is simple -- the base gets money back,” he said. “The contractor who hauls the loads to the recyclers gets a percentage and, so do we. Plus, it’s the right thing to do.”