Photo By R.J. Oriez | Recently compressed bales of shredded paper, cardboard and other commodities, each...... read more read more
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WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio -- Last year, more than 1800 tons of material thrown out by Airmen at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base did not end up in local landfills. Instead, it was recycled and reused.
Some of the recycling is required by Department of Defense and Air Force instructions, but that’s not the only reason for it.
“It’s just the right thing to do,” said Dave Dalton, 88th Civil Engineering Group Solid Waste Quality Recycling program manager. “It’s an environmental issue, trying to keep as much of this waste from going into the local landfill.”
There are approximately 300 dumpsters set around the base collecting cardboard, paper, plastic, metal, and printer toner cartridges. Dalton said the toner cartridges are getting particular attention.
“We’re really trying to concentrate on toner,” Dalton said. “At one time we quit doing them because we couldn’t do them economically, but now we can do them economically. We’re getting about 58 cents a pound for toners. So, right now, we’re trying to get everyone back onboard recycling their toners through us.”
Another item Dalton wants to see more of is lead-acid batteries—such as those found in uninterrupted power supply systems.
“There’s a lot of UPS systems around the base and we are trying to capture those batteries right now,” he said.
As the recycling dumpsters around base fill, a laborer from the recycling center goes out to get it and brings it into Building 293.
The mixed-paper finds its way onto a conveyor belt and moves across a sort line.
“We sort and grade the paper,” said Josh Burton, recycling center manager. “We’re sorting into white ledger paper, assorted office paper and mixed paper. We pull out any trash. We also pull out cardboard and heavy mixed paper as well as any other piece of debris that might come with it.”
“It is a public dumpster, there is no telling what you might get in there.” He adds.
Cardboard gets dumped on the center’s floor and laborers pick through it. Mostly to separate out the heavy, mixed paper that often gets confused with cardboard.
“Cardboard is corrugated cardboard—pretty obvious,” Burton said. “Heavy, mixed paper, people associated it with cardboard but it isn’t. Think of the paper that comes on a 12-pack of soda. It’s a heavy card stock.”
Burton does not get worked up about heavy paper getting put into the wrong bin though.
“We prefer to get it in the mixed-paper bin,” he said. “It’s common practice for people to stick it in the cardboard; we don’t have a problem with that either.”
“If you can keep it separated a little bit, or at least group it together, that helps us out a lot,” Burton added. “We have to go through it to make sure our commodities are pure.”
Recycling center personnel shred all of the white ledger paper—the type that comes out of printers or copiers—as well as anything collected from bins designated for-official-use-only. They then feed it into a baler.
Burton refers to the baler as “the heart of the recycling center.”
The compressed paper product comes out of the baler in blocks from 55 to 65 inches long and weighing between two and three thousand pounds.
Last year, 859 tons of paper products passed through the Wright-Patterson AFB Recycling Center baler to join the 833 tons of metal and 110 tons plastics processed and sold.
“Busy place—isn’t it!” Dalton said.
| Date Taken: | 02.13.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 02.22.2017 11:50 |
| Story ID: | 224291 |
| Location: | WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, OHIO, US |
| Web Views: | 250 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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