Photo By Airman 1st Class Hunter Brady | Mark Hall, 20th Civil Engineer Squadron Pollution Prevention manager, and U.S. Air...... read more read more
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SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. -- There is a small building between the commissary and deployment processing center that many at Shaw AFB may pass every day and not even notice, the reuse and recycling center.
The Force Recycle Reuse program maintains the waste that is moved and produced by Shaw to minimize the impact on the environment, cost of management and reduce the total amount spent on acquisition costs on new equipment.
The facility has five main elements that keep the operation clean and circulating to include its leader Mark Hall, 20th Civil Engineer Squadron environmental preservationist.
The other elements are the recycle and reuse hub for high turn around items, a recycling center separating basic waste, storage areas that house very large unconventional items and 20th CES's own scrap yard for their building products.
Hall explained "the FRRP is a team effort and it takes everyone to do their part. Recycling and reuse is the tunicate to neglectful waste."
The reuse and recycle hub is located at building 1501 off of Lance Ave.
It's open to all military personnel and Department of Defense employees that are in need of any miscellaneous items, such as tables, chairs, desks, cabinets, power equipment and raw materials.
Even new equipment is recovered like printer cartridges, projector bulbs, and general office supplies, said Hall.
According to Hall, Shaw currently stands at a 51 percent recycle rate of its waste. Out of that, 10 to 15 percent is reused.
The Air Force itself is at a standard of 40 percent waste recycled, Hall explained.
Shaw's acquisition efforts have cut costs for the removal of heavy and general waste, greatly reducing disposal fees and space used in local landfills, Hall explained. The reuse part of the program alone saves an estimated $100,000 a year. With the demand that rises at the beginning of a new fiscal year, the money left over is reinvested in our base qualified recycling plan, improving equipment to further expand the capabilities of the program itself.
Hall explains that, ultimately this puts shops and units at higher mission capability by removing junk items for needed space and saving some of their yearly budget by cutting the acquisition cost that directly focuses on their individual budget; this allows them to refocus their resources on essential equipment.
Hall works with a local community business that collects certain waste that's expensive to dispose of for example circuit boards with rare metals and students from Central Carolina Technical College's heating ventilation and air conditioning program to let them work and fix Shaw's broken HVAC equipment, refrigerators and even large building air conditioning units. This in turn allows students of the program to obtain real-world experience and on the job training. In return, Shaw gets back fixed air conditioning and HVAC equipment ready to use.
Shaw's FRRP provides its best capabilities to save money on waste removal, reuse equipment and recover and repair base equipment, while offering what it can to our team Shaw members and community. Hall explains "Shaw is always trying to improve the FRRP and in the world of waste, what goes around comes around."
| Date Taken: | 08.21.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 08.22.2012 13:25 |
| Story ID: | 93627 |
| Location: | SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, SC, US |
| Web Views: | 75 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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