FORT SILL, Okla., Aug. 27, 2020 -- Today, 47 participating Fort Sill active-duty units and 57 on-post organizations continue a nearly 46-year long tradition of reaping significant financial rewards from the installation’s incentive-based recycling program.
At its inception in December 1974, the installation’s debut recycling program was dubbed The Recycle Incentive 4 Award.
After close to a 20-year run, “the incentive awards program evolved into Cash for Trash in 1993,” said Chris Smith, Fort Sill Certified Qualified Recycling program manager.
Fort Sill revamped its incentive-based recycling program’s identity once more in 2015, and the program has been known ever since as the Sustainability Partnership.
“People who understand and take advantage of the Sustainability Partnership program are genuinely committed to it,” Smith said.
The greater the volume of cumulative recyclable item donations by a unit or organization each year, the greater that unit’s or organization’s financial gain.
Different recyclable materials have different point values, with aluminum beverage cans historically securing the highest point value. However, as the market value for each recyclable item changes, so too does the local corresponding point value.
While aluminum cans offer their donors the most points (converted later into dollars) per pound, corrugated cardboard reigned as last year’s top contender in terms of donated volume and monetary value, said Smith.
“We recycled a total of 778,000 pounds (389 tons) of corrugated cardboard alone in 2019, netting our on-post cardboard donors $29,396,” Smith said.
Smith continued reciting facts and figures extracted from her recycling center’s online tote board, expanding the timeline out to the past decade.
“From 2009 through 2019, we processed 8,784,400 pounds (4,392 tons) of recyclable items,” said Smith. “In exchange, $92,260.86 has been returned directly to Fort Sill active-duty units and other qualifying participants, such as the post directorates, the Army Reserve’s 95th Training Division (Initial Entry Training), and the Oklahoma Army National Guard’s MATES 72 (Maneuver Area Training Equipment Site #72).”
Not too shabby a reward for stuff that would otherwise have been casually discarded and hauled off to the landfill.
As but one example of a truly elevated level of commitment, Smith cited “the dedication of the Medical Department Activity to this very popular program,” and made note of MEDDAC’s substantial and frequent donations of corrugated cardboard and paper, all of which earn MEDDAC supplemental funds.
Despite enduring dwindling recyclable materials availability over the past nine years, a direct consequence of MEDDAC losing its dining facility and downsizing from a hospital to a health clinic, “they have remained committed to sustainability,” Smith said. Notwithstanding that pair of considerable obstacles, MEDDAC “recycled 432,000 pounds (216 tons) of material and earned $4,214.26.”
“Reynolds (Army Health Clinic) amasses so much corrugated cardboard that it bales its own,” said Johnny Wetselline, recycle center materials handler. “They deliver those bales to us here at the recycle center on a regular basis, along with their loose white paper, mixed office paper, and other recyclables.”
“Esprit de corps events are not funded by Congress, nor are they covered by appropriated funds,” Smith explained. “So, either Soldiers pay for those events out of pocket, or they augment their unit funds with supplemental funds.
“Unit funds are only for Soldiers, and are to be used for Soldiers, such as payments toward their unit’s organization day.
“The expense for renting a Moon Bounce for guests’ use at that same unit’s organization day, however, can be paid for by augmenting unit funds with supplemental funds earned through the Sustainability Partnership program.”
To qualify for such supplemental fund expenditures, “the event has to benefit all the Soldiers in the unit,” Smith continued.
Examples of authorized supplemental fund expenditures include those “in support of unit organization days, or to defer the cost of a formal ball or Christmas party,” said Smith.
Through donations of their recyclable items, Soldier and Family Readiness Groups (SFRG) and other organizations not eligible to receive unit funds earn recreational dollars instead.
Recreational dollars may only be redeemed at Fort Sill Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation Category C programs and services such as those found at the golf course and bowling alley, as well as at the Patriot Club, Outdoor Adventure Center, and LETRA (Lake Elmer Thomas Recreation Area).
To ensure Sustainability Partnership participating units are awarded the greatest amount of supplemental funding possible, Smith strongly encourages each of them to drop their recyclable materials off at the recycle center’s Building 3321. There, the unit will receive full credit for every donation.
While the center absolutely welcomes and processes all donations dropped off at its Voluntary Recycling Station on Naylor Road, any Sustainability Partnership unit or authorized organization doing so shortchanges itself of supplemental funding or recreational dollars, respectively.
The recent partial reconfiguration of Fort Sill Recycle Center facilities and activities had no adverse impact on the Sustainability Partnership. Those particular operations continued, uninterrupted.
Active-duty units, SFRGs, and other organizations participating in the Sustainability Partnership program should continue to bring their recyclable items to Building 3321 Naylor Road.
Summer drop-off times for units and organizations requiring the weighing of their recyclable materials to receive proper credit for their donations are Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 6:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. (excluding federal or training holidays).
Building 3321 is closed to donations Wednesdays, as the recycle center staff pulls equipment maintenance, mows, and performs other routine housekeeping chores that day.
Questions concerning the Sustainability Partnership program may be directed to Smith by visiting her in the center’s administrative office in Building 3321 between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. on duty days, or by calling her at 580-442-5712/7588.
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