Practicing 3 R's keeps planet healthy Published Oct. 30, 2006 By Michael Briggs Air Education and Training Command Public Affairs RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas (AETCNS) -- Most people would probably love a diet that lets them shed more than four pounds a day. Doctors, however, would likely caution that such quick weight loss is unhealthy. Yet that's what people in the United States are doing everyday in terms of the garbage they cast off, and the steady "diet" of trash is having unhealthy effects on the Earth. Americans produce more than 230 million tons of waste annually, about 4.5 pounds per person per day, according to figures from the Environmental Protection Agency. Nearly 130 million tons goes to landfills, which is enough to cover a football field more than 700 miles high with garbage. When the nation observes America Recycles Day Nov. 15, environmental leaders urge Americans to adopt the three R's to protect the planet by reducing, reusing and recycling items rather than discarding them as trash. It's a practice the Department of Defense adopted several years ago, and it has paid big dividends in helping the Air Force reduce the amount of waste it produces, said Dan Medina, Air Education and Training Command recycling program manager. "It's important to do our part in preserving the environment by reducing our impact on natural resources," Mr. Medina said. "It's an integral part of the Air Force mission. Reducing, reusing and recycling not only helps us protect the environment, but it also saves money by decreasing our dependence on landfills." Americans throw away 50 billion food and drink cans, 27 billion glass bottles and jars, and 65 million plastic and metal jar and can covers annually, according to America Recycles Day officials. About 85 percent of the nation's trash ends up in landfills, where it can take hundreds to thousands of years to decompose. Hauling garbage to the dump isn't cheap either, Mr. Medina said. "When you look at the costs for disposal at around $79 per ton versus $12 per ton to divert materials from landfills through reduction, reuse and recycling programs, it's easy to see why recycling makes sense," he said. AETC and the Air Force have experienced significant growth in recycling over the past several years. The Department of Defense set a goal in 1998 requiring bases to divert 40 percent of their solid waste to recycling by 2005. "The command not only met that goal, we continue to exceed it," Mr. Medina said. "It shows in the reduction of waste we generate and dispose, and in the growth of our recycling revenue and volume." The command's waste diversion tonnages have steadily increased from about 50,000 tons in 2000 to more than 200,000 tons in 2005. Mr. Medina said the program's success is the result of effort and innovation by base-level recycling program managers. For example, Jesse Salinas, chief of recycling at Lackland AFB, Texas, has engineered a program that is the model for the Air Force, Mr. Medina said. Lackland went from processing about 450,000 pounds of a few categories of recyclables a year in 2000 to nearly 700,000 pounds per month of 14 different items today. Mr. Salinas attributes that monumental leap to a targeted education program that reaches everyone on base. He and the members of his staff make recycling more visible by conducting outreach programs in the schools and community on and off base, he said. His team also attends base events where they have recycled products on display to show people what cans, bottles, cardboard, paper and other items can become when recycled rather than discarded. "We're constantly educating people that we're not trash collectors. We're recyclers," Mr. Salinas said. "It's a program that's integral to the base mission, and we're getting to a point where we're nearly self-sufficient." Despite recycling more than 2 million pounds of material in the July-September quarter, the Lackland program isn't resting on its laurels, Mr. Salinas said. The recycling team is initiating a test program to see if used cooking grease can fuel small utility vehicles on base. If that program is successful, the test will then determine if the grease can power Lackland's forklifts. "Every year we try to do more to take our program to the next level," Mr. Salinas said. Reducing waste not only helps the environment, but people also reap the rewards in many ways, Mr. Medina added. "There are many benefits to our people," he said. "Recycled products come back to us as everyday items in the form of playgrounds, mulch for our yards, materials to keep our rivers and streams from eroding, and phones that can be reused. "And the bottom line: We save our funding. That's money that goes back into our programs to support our mission."