LAUGHLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- Before the mid-90s, the only means of recycling on Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas, was through delivering their recyclables to the neighboring city of Del Rio. This not only lead to recyclables being thrown into general trash, but landfills were filled to the brim.
However, in 1995, an initiative was established by base leadership to create a dedicated recycling program that both saves the environment and prevents the opening of additional landfills.
Dan Gallegos, 47th Civil Engineer squadron director, understands the importance recycling has for both the environment, Laughlin and Del Rio.
“This program helps to prevent easily recyclable items from not only piling up in landfills but potentially poisoning the soil and water system,” said Gallegos. “It also saves homeowners on their utilities, because trash is a part of that. Every time Del Rio has to open a new landfill the cost is on your bills, so the longer a landfill cell lasts, the cheaper it gets for all of us.”
Gallegos mentions the lack of public knowledge of what is recyclable is a possible reason why the public does not recycle. However, both Gallegos and Oscar Ozuna, Laughlin recycling center project manager, want to change that. Ozuna, first hired in 2001, directly oversees the program which takes nearly 76 tons of waste out of landfills each year.
“The majority of the stuff we recycle is paper, plastic bottles, cans and a lot of cardboard,” said Ozuna. “A lot of cardboard. What we don’t recycle is glass, Styrofoam, appliances or tires. We get tires a lot here even though we can’t recycle them.”
The day starts early for Ozuna and his team, Mike Cardenas and Roland Deleon, who both are prior service members and have more than 20 years’ experience in recycling at the facility here. The team, according to Ozuna not only performs above expectation, but their routine also entails extra duties to ensure proper and safe recycling of every piece of waste.
“We check our schedule and pick up the recyclables at all building scheduled for that day in the morning,” said Ozuna. “We also sort everything as well afterwards, because even though we’re told to comingle everything, it’s not only how we operate but bins often gave aluminum, Styrofoam or glass in them.”
Once the number of processed recyclables fill the bins, a shipment is ordered where the bundled tons of recycled materials as sent to Austin, and the entire process starts again.
“We are very fortunate to have a program like this on base,” said Ozuna. “[Mike and Roland] work very hard every day to make this happen, and we’re incredibly proud of what we do. It seems small but helping the environment in the capacity that we do really makes me love coming to work every day.”
The efforts already have been taken note of, particularly by Katherine Nielander, 47th Student Squadron bookstore manager and Benjamin Rawald, a mother and son duo who, by personal initiative, began a pilot program to recycle toner and ink cartridges they saw being tossed into the trash.
The toner return program itself is taken on by Rawald and friends in the Venture crew, a collection of current and former Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts members across West Texas.
“Toner recycling isn’t required by the base,” Nielander said. “Benjamin [Rawald], however, collects all the toner with the Venture crew and facilitates the return and delivery, usually at a 100 percent return rate, of all toner across the [47th Operations Group]. All the [group] has to do is burn ink.”
The program caught so much traction that, according to Nielander, it’s been implemented as part of their disposal process. This means once Rawald graduates high school and leaves the Del Rio area for college, the program will be facilitated by another party instead of being abandoned.
To become part of the growing process that is the recycling program, according to Gallegos, all one must do is either place all cardboard, cans and accepted plastics into either the proper bin, or deliver it to the recycling center on base.
“We’re working to expand the program by providing new drop off points, especially at the officer and enlisted dorms.,” said Gallegos. “If somebody can’t wait for a pickup, even if the [recycling team] isn’t at the shop at that moment they can just drive in and drop it off.”
Gallegos also reiterates the necessity for the public to partake in the program and increase the amount they recycle, or else the alternative would be driving to Del Rio to recycle.
“We want to offer these conveniences for the base,” said Gallegos. ”We want this to be a successful program, but we need people’s participation in the program.”
The recycling program, once non-existent a little more than two decades ago, provides a convenient way for Laughlin and its Airmen to not only lower their utility bill but also contribute to lessening the amount of recyclable waste put into landfills and out of the ecosystem.
For questions or comments about the recycling program or what can and cannot be recycled, please contact the recycling center at (830)-298-5596.