The third week of September celebrated as Pollution Prevention Week all over the USA extends an annual opportunity for government, businesses and individuals to stress on their past achievements and improve their present attempts to find new modes to save the environment.
Contractors at Peterson AFB load recyclable material for transport. More than 550 tons of steel from the demolition of an aging commissary there was diverted from a landfill and repurposed. (Courtesy photo/Daniel Sciarra)
The Air Force joined the others in the nation in their attempts to bring down the level of water, soil and air pollution by resorting to recycling at its base locations. The recycling initiatives introduced all over the nation have drastically brought down a good number of its waste sources from reaching the landfills, while bringing income for the base stations.
Thule Air Base, at Greenland, has utilized the recycling process profitably. It has successfully recycled over 15,000 t of scrap material that had piled for over 15 years and received a check of over $1 million for the attempt. Similarly officials at AFCEE handled the pulling down of an old commissary located at Peterson AFB, Colo and diverted over 550 t of steel from reaching the landfills for other efficient reuse while recycling the demolished concrete slabs as backfill. At Fairchild AFB, Wash, the officials while building a new runway with an investment of around $43 million, crushed over 20,000 t of asphalt and 60,000 t of concrete from the old runway for the purpose of reuse. While they used most of the materials as base for the new run way they donated the rest of the materials to the community.
The LEED platinum certified fitness center at Tyndall AFB, Fla includes a number of energy conserving facilities along with the use of renewable energy sources to use around 40% less water and energy annually. The Los Angeles AFB, Calif has plans to switch over to the use of electric vehicles in place of gas powered cars for the use of its general purpose fleet from January 2012 and Joint Base Andrews, Md has introduced water-conserving landscape and a vegetative roof and utilized recycled content during the construction process.
Source: http://www.airforce.com/