Fort Hood Sets Zero-Landfill Goal

Fort Hood officials want to reach zero-waste status by 2020.

The Texas site is home to 50,000 U.S. Army soldiers and has a population of 80,000 to 100,000. At the moment, 56% of its waste is sent to a landfill, according to the Austin (Texas) American-Statesman.

Outreach efforts will be funded by revenue from Fort Hood’s recycling center, which processed about 10 tons of paper, plastic bottles, scrap metal and aluminum cans last year, and generated $1.7 million.

Money leftover after salaries, physical improvements and repairs at the center will fund the advertising campaign for the Net Zero initiative, an Army-wide sustainability program, the paper reported.

The fort has several ideas to meet its goal, including opening a furniture repair shop so residents and employees can bring their old items instead of throwing them way, and pushing the use of reusable tote bags, according to the paper.

“In the last two or three years, the military has gotten the message that what´s good for the environment is good for the taxpayer and good for the soldier,” Jim Marston, head of the Environmental Defense Fund´s Texas office, told the paper. “The military has often given us things we learn to use in daily life. We ought to pay attention because there may be lessons we can learn to adapt.”

Source:  Waste & Recycling News
By Vince Bond