King County, Wash., was presented with the Environmental Protection Agency’s award as its “Partner of the Year” Oct. 16. The divisions of the county that were singled out for the award included the Transit, Facilities Management, District Court, Procurement and Contract Services, Surplus, Solid Waste, and Parks and Recreation.
The award was based on King County's WasteWise evaluation report for 2001 that describes waste reduction and recycling-related efforts by County agencies. Those efforts included:
"King County's participation in the WasteWise program helped us to take a look at the everyday decisions we make and think about how they impact our planet," said King County Executive Ron Sims. "To help the environment we made several changes and, often, these changes also save money and made government more efficient. Employees have gotten into the spirit of the program and made a real difference."
The "Partner of the Year" award, which King County won in the Local Government category, is the EPA's WasteWise program's top honor for internal waste prevention and recycling.