New center to increase recycling efforts Published Aug. 1, 2007 By Airman 1st Class Daryl Knee 90th Space Wing Public Affairs F. E. Warren AFB, Wyo. -- The deactivation of the Peacekeeper Missiles in 2005 created the problem of disposing hazardous diesel-fuel waste once used for the missile's propulsion system. The 90th Civil Engineer Squadron designed a plan to sell the fuel instead. They found a company that bought all of it for more than $700,000. This money was then placed in an account made specifically for the creation of a new recycling facility. The plans were made and the project was finally approved earlier this month. The 90th Space Wing recycle center is scheduled to be fully functional in December and will offer brand new options on how the Warren community can recycle. "F.E. Warren is on the cusp of starting the new phase of recycling," said Laura Kwilinski, 90th CES. The new recycling center will be built in Warren's industrial zone, located right next to the hazardous waste facility and compost yard. The building will contain two balers and act as the main drop off point for recyclable wastes. Balers are machines used to compact waste materials, usually into rectangular bundles bound for transport. Balers are often used for newspaper, plastics and corrugated cardboard. With this advanced recycling center available for the base populace, Mrs. Kwilinski expects the amount of people recycling to increase. "The more convenient you make recycling, the more people will utilize any program you implement," said Craig McOmie, Wyoming's integrated solid-waste manager and recycling manager. "By providing segregated containers at home and taking it to the drop off point, I see no reason why the average percentage of people recycling won't increase." Warren plans on making the center more accommodating for users by implementing new strategies on curb-side pickup. The way it works now, any military member who lives on base can recycle. Bins are issued to families for all their recyclable waste. Free curb-side pickup is available. When the new facility is built, plastic bags will replace the bins. However, solid containers will still be supplied for heavy items such as glass. "We'll give each family multiple plastic bags," Mrs. Kwilinski said. "That way, they can pick out their main waste-streams and easily sort them into these bags and put them outside with the regular trash. When those bags make it to the new recycling center, we'll dump out the contents and then recycle the bag itself." These types of self-sustaining actions are a definite improvement on the process in place now, Mrs. Kwilinksi said. Right now, Warren pays an off-base recycling service to pick up the waste. The base has a contract with this company declaring how many recycling dumpsters are available for use, what kind of machine has to pick up these dumpsters and what day the pickup occurs. In the future, these decisions involving the planning and procedures of base recycling will be up to the staff in the new center. Also, with the center's construction, Warren will no longer have to pay for a recycling service. This means the base will save money, and retired military members will be able to use the center. Improvements in recycling are not limited to Warren alone. Cheyenne is planning to implement new recycling procedures that Airmen who live off base can participate in. "We're asking Cheyenne members to recycle, so we're going to make it as easy as we can to speed along the process," said Dennis Pino, Cheyenne's director of solid waste. "We're going to do it a little different than we've ever done it before." Cheyenne's plan is to have one or two bins at every home that recycles. These bins will house all of the home's unsorted recyclable-waste streams. The recycle trucks will pick up these bins and ship them to a municipal recycling facility in Denver. These facilities employ people to sort and send the waste to balers. The new pilot program starts in December. "I hope to see some solid results from it," Mr. Pino added. With both Cheyenne and Warren starting new programs that are scheduled to be up and running in the winter, cooperation between the two might be possible. "We're thinking about housing one of the facilities in our new recycling center," said Mrs. Kwilinski. "If we can do that, we can help out Cheyenne and take all their waste. That way, it can increase our recycling efforts here, and save Cheyenne shipping costs." Fifty percent of the money saved from recycling goes to the 90th Force Support Squadron for welfare and recreation improvements on base and 50 percent goes to the recycling office for expansion and maintenance purposes. But if Warren plans to use this facility to its fullest extent, base families will have to start recycling more. "Right now, only 4 percent of Warren's military family housing recycles," Mrs. Kwilinski said. "That's roughly 33 homes out of 825. We need to step it up and use these new recycling techniques to better our community."