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MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. - Beginning in 1970 with 22 million volunteers, Earth Day has been a worldwide movement to help clean up and protect the environment for future generations and has grown to more than 1 billion volunteers each year.
Camp Lejeune promotes Earth Day through many different programs and events to help spur involvement and encourage everyone to clean up the environment, said Alicia Filzen, environmental management system and qualified recycling program manager for Camp Lejeune.
Volunteers at Operation Clean Sweep picked up trash, landscaped overgrown vegetation and trimmed dead branches from trees.
People don’t need a special occasion to help clean up the environment, but Earth Day provides one day a year for those who normally wouldn’t come out, said Madison Shoemaker, a volunteer at Operation Clean Sweep.
“This is my first time coming to this event, but I love it,” said Shoemaker. “Earth Day is a way to give back to nature, if we don’t do our part to keep the Earth healthy; it’s bad for all of us.”
If we clean up the area now, people will be less likely to throw trash on the ground if they are walking through a pristine area, added Shoemaker.
The base has several green initiatives in place to protect the environment. Camp Lejeune encourages service members and civilians aboard base to utilize recycling bins located around base, as well as at the landfill.
The base motor pool houses fuel efficient and low emission vehicles that run on E85 fuel in order to reduce the carbon footprint of base traffic.
Also, over the next three years, to reduce air pollution and promote efficiency, the base will de-centralize, dismantle and remove the coal plant used for heating water, said Filzen.
Before Earth Day was created, society did not put a cost to the environment on exhaust pollution or trash, but now service members and civilians are aware of their impact, said Brian Woodall, deputy director of Environmental Management Division.
Woodall added, service members should take a step back and realize what cleaning up the environment can do to keep pristine training areas.
“They should take some pride in keeping the environment clean,” said Woodall. “Police calls are not just a tedious chore to waste time. If a unit leaves trash all over a training area, it affects future events and reduces the training value.”
Environmental Management Division continues the spirit of Earth Day with the 2014 Earth Day Exposition at Marston Pavilion, April 24. Splash for Trash will begin April 25 where more than 200 volunteers will kayak on the waterways between Camp Lejeune and Marine Corps Air Station New River picking up trash. The Household Electronics Recycling Turn-in is also being held April 25 at the Marine Corps Exchange to collect old or broken electronics that should not be thrown in the trash.
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| Date Taken: | 04.23.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 04.23.2014 15:38 |
| Story ID: | 127288 |
| Location: | MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, NC, US |
| Web Views: | 56 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Camp Lejeune promotes Earth Day through Operation Clean Sweep, by Cpl Joshua Grant, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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