"Innovations" Case Studies: Government Facilities

Case Studies

• Defense Procurement
• Los Alamos National Laboratory Mail Recycling Program
• Corcoran Prison Recycling
• Destruction at the Presidio
• Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory/Ecology Center Project

Defense Procurement

In response to the President’s Executive Orders 12873 and 13101, the Joint Logistics Commanders asked the Defense Logistics Agency in February 1998 to add a new element to the Federal Logistics Information System (FLIS). Environmental attribute codes (ENAC) highlight products with positive environmental attributes or identify items as being green (environmentally preferable).

The presence of an ENAC indicates that a product meets the environmental standards and criteria of a government-approved certifying agency, or in some cases, that a product may be preferred or approved as an environmental alternative product. The Defense Logistics Information Service is updating the logistics information system with these ENACs to help customers find environmental products in the logistics system.

Environmental products are also identified by a “green tree” symbol in the Department of Defense electronic mall and also in the Federal Logistic Data (FED LOG) publication, available in CD-rom or DVD format.

DLIS Environmental is also working in partnership with the Government, Industry, Reference Data, Edit and Review program (GIRDER). When operational, this Web-based application will make it easy for vendors who have products listed in FLIS to update key product information. Vendors will also have the opportunity to self-certify that their products meet one or more of the listed environmental criteria.

By promoting environmentally preferable products in FLIS, the projected savings from the increased purchase and use of recycled and environmentally preferred products will exceed $87.78 million per year. A significant portion of these savings will come from the reduction in hazardous waste disposal costs.

Los Alamos National Laboratory Mail Recycling Program

Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) annually receives approximately 600 tons of junk mail. The LANL mailroom staff has implemented an ongoing program to collect and recycle more than 35 percent of this unwanted material at virtually no cost by integrating its retrieval into the existing on-site mail delivery system.

LANL operates under a contract for the University of California and is required to recycle greater than 35 percent of the total waste generated each year. The staff from the Bus-4 mail room worked with the environmental stewardship office to develop a program that simultaneously reduces the amount of waste going to the landfill and helps to meet the 35 percent recycling rate.

A mail stop called MS A1000 was created to receive the unwanted mail from the 10,000 employees at the laboratory. Employees can now label junk mail with “MS A1000” and it will be sent back to the mail room for sorting and recycling. Employees who deliver the mail throughout the laboratory complex every day agreed to pick up MS A1000 material with the outgoing mail. In the mail room this material is sorted into various bins for different recycling options:

• Mixed paper is picked up by Los Alamos County and recycled into roof felt.

• Transparencies are sent out to be recycled by a plastics manufacturer.

• Glue-bound books and magazines have the binding sheared off so that the paper can be recycled.

• Other materials are either collected for recycling or reused.

The program recycles approximately 200 metric tons of material annually, saving $25,824 in disposal costs that would have been paid to the county landfill. The program saves an additional $116,000 in waste disposal fees.

With the success of this program, the mail room staff has been able to expand the program from collecting junk mail to accepting books, transparencies, newsprint, magazines, flyers, brochures, catalogs, binders, colored paper, and folders. Books collected through MS A1000 are recycled or donated to schools or other government agencies for reuse. This system has been very effective and could be easily implemented at other government sites as a part of a mail program.

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Corcoran Prison Recycling

The Corcoran State Prison has implemented an aggressive recycling program. In just six months, the prison has gone from 0 to 50 percent waste reduction as of November 1999. The prison expects its trash bill to drop significantly in March 2000.

The prison now has a total of 70 2-cubic-yard recycling bins. The number of 2-cubic-yard trash bins has been reduced from 67 to 53. The prison plans to continue to reduce trash to 40 bins or less and achieve 70 percent reduction by 2001. The local Marine Corps in Fresno accepted about 4 tons of fiber to use as rags.

The prison, which would like to start its own composting facility, added collection bins in the cafeteria for food waste and compostables starting in December 1999. The success of the Corcoran recycling program is the result of strong cooperation between the prison and the Kings County Waste and Recycling Authority, along with the involvement of the CIWMB State agency recycling program. A full-time recycling crew of 10 people has implemented the program at the prison.

Deconstruction at the Presidio

The Presidio Trust, a federal executive agency governed by a seven-member board, exists to maintain and enhance the natural and cultural resources of the Presidio park in San Francisco. The Presidio, part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and the national park system, seeks to become financially self-sufficient by the year 2013. The Presidio strives to be a model of environmental, economic, and cultural sustainability. The trust decided that waste diversion would be a key element of its strategy. Waste reduction strategies include:

• Parkwide recycling collection and education.
• Visitor and special event recycling.
• Building materials salvage.
• Compost and tree debris recycling.
• Environmental purchasing program.

A pilot project conducted at the Presidio was the deconstruction of Building 901, a warehouse built by the U.S. Army in the 1940s. Partners in the project included the National Park Service, the San Francisco Community Recyclers, Beyond Waste, and the Wood Resources Efficiency Network.

In about six weeks, more than 60,000 board-feet of lumber were recovered in structural form. Rather than being chipped for boiler fuel or ground for mulch, the wood was reused in value-added projects. The unique qualities of the old-growth wood made it especially valuable. Wood experts admired its close grain, straightness, and absence of flaws. Although the project incurred high labor costs (more than 1,000 person-hours), the project was successful due to the revenue from sales of recovered lumber. Some important lessons from this project were:

• Have a reuse and recycling specialist examine the building and determine the potential value and salvageability of materials.
• Reuse as much material as possible on the site or elsewhere within your organization.
• Plan for a project that will take more time than demolition.
• Identify markets for materials before you begin the project.
• Designate a secure space for materials to be stored and prepared for marketing.
• Consider alternative labor sources and the potential to offer skills training.
• Track the destination of the materials and tell your story.

Deconstruction Costs For the Presidio Project

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Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory/Ecology Center Project

In May 1999, the Ecology Center of Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) started a waste diversion project with grant funding. LBNL already had an established and innovative recycling program with an existing recycling rate of 58 percent. The Ecology Center planned to increase LBNL’s diversion by 270 tons or 20 percent over the 1,366 tons diverted in the base year. As part of the project, the Ecology Center placed a staff person at the facility with the task of identifying and ranking the priorities for diversion. The project included a variety of tasks, including:

• Group training sessions.
• One-on-one interactions with LBNL research and administrative staff.
• Training the custodial staff.
• Implementing needed changes in bin placement and service frequency.
• Distribution of educational literature.
• Troubleshooting the reusables distribution system.
• Monitoring the composition of all waste and recycling receptacles.
• Establishing a working relationship with LBNL’s hauler.
• Ensuring that LBNL is complying with Department of Energy regulations.
• Working with construction contractors to insure that they recycle.
• Analyzing the data history of LBNL’s recycling weights.

When the project was initiated, staff expected that C&D debris would comprise the majority of the new diversion. However, construction has decreased since the project was first proposed. Consequently, the on-site recycler focused more on office and lab paper recycling. The recycler also investigated carpet recycling and expanding organic composting to include tissues and food waste.

Thus far, the project has diverted 206 tons, achieving 76 percent of the goal of 270 tons while expending 67 percent of the allocated staff time. Fiber and green/wood categories have yielded the majority of the new diversion. Despite having to shift focus towards lighter materials, staff members report that they are meeting project objectives. During the final months of the project, staff will concentrate on the following areas:

• Increasing mixed paper collection with new bins received from an Alameda County Recycling Board mini-grant.
• Office clean-outs.
• Deconstruction of some small buildings.
• Outside construction contractor compliance and reporting.
• Increasing diversion of green and wood waste.

Other recommendations and ideas for future diversion include:

1. Standardizing outside C&D contractor diversion reports.
2. Creating contractual percentage or account numbers for work related to handling and inspecting of diversion.
3. Holding training/staff meetings on diversion and location of bins for contractor workers.
4. Create handout on prices/contact numbers for contractors to order their own rolloffs.
5. Use green specs more in bids; research why more RCPs are not being used.
6. Involve inspection team and/or environmental health and safety staff more in non-hazardous waste monitoring.
7. Work with haulers to develop better use of yellow salvage hoppers and loading instructions/labeling of bins.
8. Create incentives for custodians to recycle.
9. Create incentives for office employees and students in labs to recycle.
10. Track waste and diversion by building using real weight values-possibly with an on-truck scale and coded bins.
11. Create small version of poster as handout for new employees.
12. Research use of washable air filters for large building to replace disposables.
13. Reduce paper towel use by switching to cloth hand towel rolls, or avoid landfilling them by composting.
14. Standardize LBNL supply companies that take back plastic pipette boxes and other packaging or reuse.
15. Use different cafeteria take-out container that is recyclable or returnable for washing.
16. Compost food waste in cafeteria with paper.
17. Use more washables in cafeteria.
18. Use different cap on coffee cups to cause fewer problems with composting.
19. Offer refillable coffee cups and other cups that people bring back.
20. Buy small hang-on bins or other small bins for trash or recycling of bottles/cans or other materials.
21. Revamp process for calculating holiday garbage.
22. Revamp process for calling in bins and getting receipts signed by truck driver.
23. Get compactor/baler for plastic sheeting, other plastics, or trash.
24. Develop method for getting U.S. EPA credit in procurement for services or source reduction/reuse activities, such as using cloth towels.
25. Buy more recycled-content products made with postconsumer waste instead of pre-consumer items-research new products and define recycled content better.
26. Issue notes (garbage police tickets) to increase useability for custodians and waste diversion staff.
27. Centralize places for trash dumpsters and recycling for better control of illegal dumping.
28. Develop graphic link to lab recycling guide on Web site or post in other visible place.
29. Obtain better lids for garbage dumpsters to avoid water weight, and research water factor used by hauler in reports.
30. Create mini-recycling centers on each floor with a recycling poster above the bins.
31. Work more with gardeners on yard waste diversion.

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Last updated: October 26, 2007