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Many jobs live in the limelight, like that of a firefighter or an astronaut, but just because a job isn’t in that light doesn’t mean it can’t shine or be rewarding. One of those jobs belongs to the men and women working aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune’s Material Recovery Facility or landfill.
The landfill is operated by two heavy-equipment operators and a spotter using several pieces of heavy equipment.
All incoming waste and recyclables are screened and weighed by the scale operator then directed to the appropriate location for disposal. The landfill receives an average of 140 tons of waste each day. All waste is compacted to reduce air space and covered at the end of each day with six inches of soil or 12 for areas that are not filled to capacity, but won’t receive any waste for six or more months.
“We’ve got over 1,800 dumpsters all over the base and we collect them,” said Joseph Powers, landfill manager for Camp Lejeune. “We dropped from carrying around 300 tons of waste a day to down to around 140 and that’s because of an increase in recycling.”
Not only do operators compact and cover waste, they’re also responsible for maintaining the storm water and leachate drainage systems within the landfill. The landfill handles both the recyclable materials and any other waste that may come in.
“My job is to make sure the recycling gets done safely and in an orderly fashion,” said Jason Cornelison, site supervisor for the quality recycling program for Camp Lejeune. “I record all the waste that comes and when we process the materials we sell it to vendors that buy it from us.”
The goal of the material recovery facility is to reduce the amount of recyclables put in the landfill. They sort through all materials to ensure nothing damaging is being brought into the landfill.
“I look at every load and direct it to the proper location whether it’s to recycle or the landfill,” said Benjamin Franklin, material examiner and identifier. “We’re here to support the Marines and sometimes we seem to be a little too picky, but we need to be that way to make the landfill last as long as possible.”
The facility has a similar goal to others but is different in the fact that they sell the recyclables and use that money to give back to the base in any way they can.
“This is good for the environment, I’m very pro recycle. We need to recycle more, we recycle everything from plastic to aluminum to wood to glass,” said Cornelison. “What makes this place special is the employees. We have a really good crew that works here.”
| Date Taken: | 10.12.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 11.12.2017 20:28 |
| Story ID: | 251938 |
| Location: | NC, US |
| Web Views: | 17 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Base recycling cleans up streets, by Sgt Juan Madrigal, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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