AFPA Recognizes Navy Whidbey Recycle, Again

In what has become a recurring theme in recent years, the Navy Whidbey Recycle (NWR) program has once again been recognized for its outstanding performance.

Navy Whidbey Recycle at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island (NASWI), Oak Harbor, Wash., recently won the American Forest and Paper Association (AFPA)'s 2002 Best Paper Recycling Award in the Federal Government category.

The AFPA Best Paper Recycling Award honors the top recycling programs in the U.S., based on paper quality, public education, partnerships, measurability, innovation and cost-effectiveness. NWR competed against more than 100,000 other entrants to claim top prize.

"Navy Whidbey was an early favorite and a clear winner," Remy Esquenet, director of fiber recovery and utilization with AFPA, said.

"They were selected due to their strong commitment and innovative efforts to recover paper that is high in quality in a cost effective manner."

Located in the North Puget Sound, NWR serves a military population of more than 7,500 and a civilian workforce of 2,000. The program has grown from recycling 4 percent of the waste stream in 1990 to 64 percent in 2001. In its first 12 years, 98 million pounds of recyclable and compostable materials were diverted from the waste stream.

The refuse cost avoidance savings has totaled more than $8.5 million, while generating more than $1.7 million in recycling sales -- a value to the command of $10.2 million.

NWR collects all types of paper products and sorts them into eight grades. A crew makes collections at the air station's 1,550 households and 140 buildings five days a week.

NWR always has accepted reduced-quality paper, rather than disposing of it: carbon paper, waxed cardboard and tainted waste paper are all used as carbon sources in the compost.

NWR also involves the local community and area schools through tours and open houses, and events such as the Countdown to Spring Clean, an Earth Day event and the annual Dumpster Diving Championships, in which volunteers remove recyclable materials that have been seeded with prizes and cash, from the waste stream.