Recycling materials the correct way

  • Published
  • By John Cochran
  • 377th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
KIRTLAND AFB, N.M. --  When people at Kirtland Air Force Base properly use recycling bins, they contribute raw material to a production cycle that takes items collected here for processing into other useful products.

That system works well, according to the base's solid waste program manager, Katrina Wheelock.

"We absolutely want people on base to recycle, because doing so brings many tangible benefits. It reduces the amount of material that's bound for landfills, which means we pay lower fees for trash disposal. When there's a market for us to sell our recycled material, doing so generates revenue for base environmental and recreation programs," she said.

Wheelock said there may be some misunderstanding about what material is currently accepted in the base's recycling program.

"We can take aluminum cans, newspapers, magazines, phone books, file folders, envelopes and junk mail, white paper, shredded paper, cardboard, and plastic bottles labeled '1' and '2.' We're not able to take steel food cans, glass, foam packing material and rigid plastic not identified as types '1' and '2,' such as toys, kiddie pools and garden hose reels."

She explained why certain items are accepted in the base's recycling program while others aren't.

"Kirtland accepts materials when we can collect enough volume to make it cost-effective to transport them to a local market."

Along with encouraging Team Kirtland to take part in recycling efforts, Wheelock asked people to use the bins according to their labeled purpose.

"When someone puts a half-full clamshell container of takeout food in a recycle bin, that's not helpful. Things that are clearly trash should be disposed of in trash containers. Having 'clean' recyclable material maximizes the cost-effectiveness of our collection, because we don't pay extra to sort out the contamination," she said. The 'contamination rate' - when trash is put in with accepted recyclable material - varies by collection site, Wheelock said.

"For drop-offs at the commissary, about 75 percent of the weight in the plastic and aluminum bins is contamination. We do a really good job with the mixed paper and cardboard there, with virtually no contamination. In the office curbside program, our contamination is roughly 20-25 percent by weight across all materials," she said.

"In no way do we want people not to recycle because of these concerns - we just ask that they use the collection bins according to their labels."