JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-LACKLAND, Texas –
Waste and Recycling Workers Appreciation Week takes place between June 17 and 23, and is a national celebration of the men and women who work in the waste and recycling industry.
It’s the perfect time to show your appreciation for those who serve our Joint Base San Antonio community – the individuals who toil in inclement weather and extreme temperatures, doing back-breaking work, picking up your recyclables, swapping out your recycling bins, working in the Recycle Center, etc.
In 2022, your JBSA Qualified Recycling Program personnel processed 2252.2 tons of recyclables which generated $451,911.24 for the Program and saved the base $107,380.13 in disposal costs and refuse fees. Your efforts in your workplace have been recognized, noted, and appreciated. The JBSA QRP could not have reached that tonnage or obtained those savings without you.
Here at Joint Base San Antonio, we strive to do our part not only to benefit our military community and surrounding communities but also to benefit the world for future generations. All Department of Defense installations are required to have or participate in a recycling program, when cost-effective.
JBSA has a Qualified Recycling Program, or QRP. A Qualified Recycling Program is an installation-wide (services all organizations including mission partners and tenants) recycling program that is allowed to retain proceeds from sales of recyclable commodities. It is considered “Qualified” if it meets DOD requirements to maintain accountability for the materials sold or diverted and for the proceeds it receives.
The mission of the JBSA QRP is to protect human health and the environment, conserve natural resources, and promote recycling, an essential part of the U.S. federal government’s overall environmental initiative to reduce the environmental impact of and amount of waste generated by the U.S. military services.
The JBSA QRP’s goal is to encourage the base populace to serve as responsible stewards of the environment, by diverting solid waste from landfills through the implementation of waste minimization practices such as reducing, reusing, and recycling materials, to ensure a safe, healthy and sustainable nation for current and future generations.
The JBSA QRP website can be found at https://www.jbsa.mil/Resources/Environmental/Qualified-Recycling-Program/.
Participation in JBSA's recycling program is mandatory and, in accordance with the JBSA Mandatory Recycling Program Policy letter, signed by the vice commander, the following items will be recycled at a minimum:
- High-grade paper (office paper)
- Cardboard
- Newspaper
- Aluminum cans (empty, clean, and dry)
- Scrap metal,
- plastics (the JBSA QRP ONLY ACCEPTS PLASTICS 1 AND 2 that are empty, clean, and dry (bottles and jugs)
- Used oil
- Lead acid batteries
- Scrap wood pallets
- Printer (toner and ink) cartridges
- Expended small arms cartridge cases (ESACCs).
Item types must be separated into their respective carts (not mixed together).
Contact your facility manager for recycling locations in your building and contact the QRP with any other recycling questions.
JBSA is a multi-stream recycling site. We sort our recyclables so that there is less contamination at the source which results in higher financial value of collected materials.
Contamination is any foreign matter (liquid or solid) that is not intended to be collected. Contamination adversely affects the recycling stream and the diversion rate. The diversion rate represents how much of waste you divert from your facility without burning (incineration) or buying (landfill).
The DOD-mandated diversion goals are to:
- Divert 40 percent of non-hazardous solid waste (excluding construction and demolition (C&D) debris) from incineration and landfilling
- Divert 60 percent of C&D debris from incineration and landfilling
- Reduce total annual waste generation by 2 percent of total waste each year through FY 2025.
In 2022, JBSA collected:
383.4 tons of paper and 1200.4 tons of cardboard
- Each ton of recycled paper saves three cubic yards of landfill space, 380 gallons of oil, 17 trees, 4,000 kilowatts of energy, and 7,000 gallons of water. Recycling paper saves 60% of the energy needed to make paper from raw products.
- 10.1 tons of plastic
- Plastics take thousands of years to decompose, contaminate soil and water, and pose hazards to wildlife, recycling plastics saves 88% energy needed to make new bottles from raw materials.
2.2 tons of cans
- Recycling aluminum saves 95% of the energy needed to make new cans from raw materials. If we recycle steel and tin, we could save 60-74% of the energy used to produce them from raw materials. Recycling one aluminum beverage can save enough energy to run a 14-watt CFL bulb (60-watt incandescent equivalent) for 20 hours.
624.2 tons of metals
- Metal recycling preserves natural resources by reducing the need to extract virgin raw materials and, as such, is effectively fighting climate change. Recycling scrap metal allows us to use less energy, which also means less greenhouse gas emissions.
30 tons of pallets
- Wood pallets are 100% recyclable. By recycling pallets – either through re-entering them into circulation or through proper disposal at the end of their life cycle – you’re making efforts to: reduce deforestation, reduce landfill contributions and reduce soil erosion. For example, one projection says 350 million recycled pallets per year saves about 43 million trees! The U.S. Forest Service has estimated that 474 million wood pallets were recovered in 2011, with 326 million of those returned to circulation as pallets and the remaining 148 million recycled into “other products.” Another study conducted by Virginia Tech University estimated that of 700 million pallets manufactured and repaired in the U.S., less than 3% now end up in landfills.
1.8 tons of printer cartridges
- Recycling print cartridges reduces air and water pollution associated with landfilling, helps save energy, and conserves natural resources. it can take 1,000 years for a print cartridge to fully decompose in a landfill. By recycling used printer cartridges, we conserve energy and natural resources by reducing the need for raw materials to manufacture new ones. For every 100,000 recycled print cartridges, we can save 9,599 kilograms of aluminum; 40 tons of plastic; and 1,000,000 liters of oil.
Thank you for your efforts in the past and your commitment to doing better in the future by helping us reduce, reuse, and recycle.
With a grand total of 2252.2 tons of material recycled by JBSA in 2022, the proceeds back to JBSA equaled $451,911.24.
The QRP is operated by civil service employees whose pay is funded by QRP revenues. Also, the QRP is self-supporting. All the proceeds generated from the sales of recyclable commodities are put back into the program to pay for operating costs such as equipment purchases, equipment maintenance, personal protective equipment or the employees, to reimburse operations and maintenance, etc.
After operating costs are met, up to 50% of the funds can be used for base environmental initiatives such as energy conservation, pollution abatement, and occupational, safety, and health activities. Any funds remaining after that can be used for morale, welfare, and recreation projects to benefit the base populace.
This incredible progress, made by your contributions to the JBSA QRP, would not have been as successful without the hard work of our amazing recycling workers. Waste and Recycling Workers Week is June 17-23.
Take a moment to show your gratitude when you cross paths. Say hello, offer a handshake or knuckle tap, leave an appreciation note on your bins, or create goody bags. Get creative. A simple thank you goes a long way.