AMLC’s revamped recycling program cuts tons of metal, electronic waste headed to landfill

Photo By C.J. Lovelace | Chris Borrell, facilities operations specialist for U.S. Army Medical Logistics Command, tosses a box of old cables and other office supplies into a bin to be recycled March 25 at AMLC headquarters at Fort Detrick, Maryland.  

FORT DETRICK, MD, UNITED STATES

03.27.2024

Story by C.J. Lovelace 

U.S. Army Medical Logistics Command

FORT DETRICK, Md. -- U.S. Army Medical Logistics Command has revamped its headquarters recycling programs to reduce the amount of waste that ends up in local landfills.

Chris Borrell, AMLC’s facilities operations specialist who is leading the effort, said command personnel and tenant organizations at Fort Detrick’s Defense Medical Logistics Center, or DMLC, recycled nearly 10,000 pounds of waste, including electronics, discarded metal items and printer toner, in a span of about six months.

“We only have one Earth and it’s everyone’s responsibility to take care of it and pass it on to our kids,” Borrell said. “I enjoy hiking, fishing, and it’s upsetting when you just see garbage on the ground. We’re just trying to be responsible and leave something better than we found it.”

Borrell estimates the total collection of recyclable materials in future years would be roughly 5,000 pounds annually.

Since coming on board with AMLC in June 2023, Borrell said he started noticing an excess of outdated items accumulating in the building that needed to go. Rather than send it to the landfill, he wanted to find a better way.

AMLC already worked with a third-party vendor to recycle printer toner cartridges. Borrell said he learned the same vendor offered additional recycling services, including for electronics waste and scrap metal.

“I started making a list of all the things we could recycle in the building,” he said, adding that old but still usable furniture would be donated to local charities. “This all was inspired by seeing someone wheeling a cart of cables and just throwing them in the dumpster. I thought, there’s got to be a better way.”

Borrell said he knows AMLC’s recycling program is small in the grand scheme of things, but he was proud recently to hear questions and interest from command employees asking about renewing efforts to bring it back.

“I believe it shows we care not only about the environment, but about what’s important to the people in the building as well,” he said.

AMLC, a direct report to U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command, is the Army’s Life Cycle Management Command for medical materiel.

• Date Taken: 03.27.2024
• Date Posted: 03.27.2024 10:36
• Story ID: 467149
• Location: FORT DETRICK, MD, US