Photo By Eric Pilgrim | A new recycling bin sits near Oak Park military community that allows residents the...... read more read more
FORT KNOX, Ky. — Some huge green recycling bins suddenly appeared recently at three Fort Knox locations recently.
What makes these bins so unique is that they have been positioned in housing areas, and they belong to neighboring community: Meade County, to be exact.
“This is the first stage of an overall plan to increase capacity and capability to recycle for our residents on post, and to meet our climate strategy initiatives,” said Ricci. “We couldn’t have done this without Meade County.”
Officials from Knox Hills said residents have been requesting recycling services for a few years.
“Our residents have been requesting some type of recycling program since services were first postponed during COVID, then again when we switched trash providers over the summer,” said Katie Huff, Knox Hills project director for parent company Lendlease. “Understanding this is an important service for our residents, we have worked diligently to come up with a program that would be beneficial and convenient for residents.”
Ricci gives the credit for the idea to Troy Kok, who is Judge Executive of Meade County and a retired Army major general.
“He knew that we used to have recycling on Fort Knox for our residents, and now we don’t,” said Ricci. “He saw that as an opportunity that’s a win, not only for Fort Knox, but also his county since ultimately we can recycle products to Meade County, and they can make the money off of the investment through recycling.”
Recycling has been a complex issue at Fort Knox in past years. The Fort Knox Qualified Recycle Center has a separate mission that prevents it from being the recycling point for all of the installation. Its main focus is on facilities and organizations.
Changing markets in 2019 forced the center, which is a non-appropriated funds organization, to adjust what can and cannot be recycled there. However, starting in October of this year, the center agreed to collect cardboard for residents at three locations due to high demand.
One month later, Fort Knox officials signed a memorandum of agreement, making Meade County the go-to for the housing communities.
“Right now, we’re purposely starting small in our residential areas,” said Ricci. “We’ve got three bulk drop-offs established. We want to learn lessons and make sure our objectives are correct between us and the county before going larger: so, super small baby steps right now.”
Jamie Daley, manager of the Qualified Recycle Center, said those locations are the Godman Neighborhood off Walsh Street, parallel to Warhawk and Sumner for the historic district; the open-in road at North Tulip between Oak Park and Chestnut Glen for those communities; and the gravel parking lot of the Dietz Community Center for the Dietz community.
Knox Hills officials praised the move by Meade County.
“There are several benefits to this service, including lowering our impact on the environment, lowering emissions that come from landfilling,” said Huff, “and reducing the number of new products that need to be created from virgin materials.”
Besides cardboard, the additional recycle bins will accept #1 and #2 pre-rinsed plastics, newspaper and white paper, aluminum and steel cans, magazines and all small metal pieces that fit into corresponding bins.
“The service provides an opportunity for Meade County to carefully sift through items to ensure they are up to par with the recycling products they accept,” said Huff. “This was the biggest issue we faced in the past, as they quite often received recycling products that were not actually recyclable or were unable to be recycled due to cleanliness of the item.”
Ricci said glass remains off the list of recyclable materials for now. However, it is not forgotten.
“We’re hoping to move to glass and other products,” said Ricci.
Mary Ellen Correia, Fort Knox Housing Division chief, said the request from Meade County to take over recycling in the housing areas benefits everyone.
“It a win-win situation as they can get increased volume of materials to recycle, and we diminish items going into our landfills.”
| Date Taken: | 12.14.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 12.14.2023 16:15 |
| Story ID: | 459987 |
| Location: | FORT KNOX, KY, US |
| Web Views: | 42 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Housing officials: Fort Knox residents now have recycling options, by Eric Pilgrim, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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