Volume 12, Issue 3  •  Fall 2004

2004 MRC Conference Award Winners

The 16^th annual conference and training held this past May was another productive conference for MRC, with a full schedule of new session topics and well-versed speakers. At the conference, MRC honored the following recipients with awards:

Best Market Development Program Award

MES Tire Recycling Facility

MES operates a tire recycling facility in Baltimore that is turning what was once considered garbage into a valuable commodity. MES’s tire recycling plant can grind more than 8,000 tires per day and produces crumb rubber in sizes ranging from 4mm to 0.5mm. The granules are manufactured from heavy truck tires, passenger, and light truck tires. The recycled rubber is then sold for a variety of applications including sports fields, playgrounds, horse arenas, road surfaces, and the manufacture of automotive parts.

Extraordinary Achievement Award

Calvert Group Ltd.

The employees and management of the Calvert Group are committed to the purchase of as many recycled materials as possible, the reduction of waste in the office, and recycling what they can in order to reinforce their commitment to positive social change. Calvert Group has been recycling computer paper since 1984, however, their corporate-wide recycling program was officially established in June 1990. In 2002, they established a battery recycling program. And on Earth Day, April 22, 2004, they launched an enhanced computer recycling program. During the past year Calvert Group has recycled over 30 tons of reusable materials, which, according to the property management company, is two-thirds of all the trash produced by the company. Calvert Group also practices waste reduction. One example is double sided copying.

Outstanding Corporate Leadership Award:

Pepco

Pepco is a regulated electric utility that provides transmission and distribution services to more than 700,000 customers in Washington, DC, and major portions of Prince George’s and Montgomery counties in suburban Maryland. Pepco avoids the creation of pollution and waste in many ways, ranging from making “green” energy available to retail customers, to innovative recycling of usable materials, to fueling its operating fleet with clean fuels. Pepco business units establish environmental goals and are evaluated for their environmental performance. In addition to the routine recycling of paper, plastic, and metals, Pepco pursues cost-effective approaches for reducing waste and reconditioning or recycling usable parts. Pepco has implemented many work processes to recondition or recycle usable parts, equipment, packing materials, and scrap items. Products such as antifreeze, used tires, refrigerant, lead-acid batteries, scrap metal, and electrical cables are recycled, reconditioned, returned to vendors as part of new item purchase agreement, or sold. Used oils are also accumulated and sent to a local company for reuse. Pepco received the “Outstanding Business Recycling” Award under the Montgomery County SORRT program for the recycling activities conducted in 2003 at the Rockville Service Center. In 2003, Pepco received two “Honorable Mention” awards from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Waste Wise Program.

Outstanding Environmental and Community Leadership Award:

Ecology Club at High Point High School

The Ecology Club at High Point High School in Beltsville, Maryland and project coordinator Philip A. Springs, in conjunction with the Prince George’s County Department of Environmental Resources, Waste Management Division’s Marilyn Rybak, planned and held an eCycling event at High Point High School on Saturday, May 15^th. The DER has held eCycling events since 2002, but this event included the community, business establishments, and the local government who together participated in the planning and preparation of the event. After attending an earlier event held by the DER, Philip Spring, a junior and member of the Ecology Club had the idea of hosting an event at his school. DER handled the logistics while Philip Springs and the Ecology Club were responsible for the following: the site, advertising, securing business partners, developing and distributing educational materials, and organizing the volunteer staff. Philip did all of that and produced a brochure that detailed the hazards of end of life electronics if they are disposed improperly.

Outstanding Government Leadership Award:

Maryland-National Capital Park & Planning Commission Department of Parks & Recreation

The M-NCPPC Department of Parks and Recreation recycling program provides and encourages recycling opportunities in numerous ways, and at sites throughout the agency. More than 100 sites have curbside recycling pickup of mixed paper and co-mingled beverage containers. An older model box truck was “recycled” and retrofitted to become a traveling billboard to promote the department’s program to both staff and park patrons. The truck’s recycling crew provides weekly pickups of materials from specially labeled and placed containers in M-NCPPC facilities and transports the material to the Prince George’s County Recycling Center. Even though one of the department’s recycling programs began five years ago, the program began fully in July 2002. The program is currently not self-sustaining, but there is a savings from reduced tipping fees and removal of expensive dumpsters throughout the parks system.

Outstanding Small Government Program Award:

Allegany County Solid Waste Management Board

The Allegany County Solid Waste Management Board has been instrumental in developing and updating the County’s Solid Waste Management Plan every three years and is responsible for encouraging public recycling and source reduction of debris reaching the landfill. This Board’s participation in creating and distributing recycling and source reduction information include: brochures, place mats, a page in the local telephone directory, newspaper articles, websites, church bulletin displays, annual telephone book stickers, and a Reuse Directory. Along with speaking at local organization meetings, and staffing booths at community events these activities have had a significant impact in the effort to inform citizens about Allegany County’s hierarchy of source reduction and recycling program.

The Solid Waste Management Board has also been directly involved in numerous outreach programs. Specifically, an elementary school presentation of Timothy Wenk’s, “The Magic of Recycling” seen by over 5,000 Allegany County students in 2001. Videos such as “The Rotten Truth,” “Time and Time Again,” and “Get a Grip” were distributed to local elementary, middle and high schools in an effort to provide a continuous resource of educational material related to recycling and source reduction in 2002. A recycling mascot design contest was sponsored in 2003 for the purpose of promoting the Reduce/Reuse/Recycling and Composting theory. Their goal for 2004 is to develop a permanent office paper recycling program in middle schools with the desire to expand to all Allegany County schools within a few years.

Dwight Copenhaver Recycler of the Year:

Marilyn Rybak

Marilyn is a Project Planner in the Waste Management Division’s Waste Reduction Section, Department of Environmental Resources, Prince George’s County Government. She has been with DER since 1997, starting in storm water management. She was a partner in the High Point High School eCycling event. Over the past few years she has planned, implemented, and currently manages many different events:

1. Ink jet and laser toner cartridge recycling – with a portion of the proceeds donated to special needs children.

2. Electronic recycling – there is a permanent site at the Brown Station Landfill and she conducts collection events at different locations in the county.

3. Free mulch giveaway days of recycled Christmas trees.

4. Designed and opened the Visitor’s Center at the Waster Branch Composting site for county residents.

5. Conducted feasibility study and pilot project of the State of Maryland’s “Look for the Loop” campaign to identify and promote products made from recycled content material.

6. Assists in working special events, such as the Household Hazardous Waste Collection and Tire Amnesty Day. Marilyn is also a member of the MRC Board of Directors, presently serving a treasurer and formerly as secretary.