Team Tinker.

National defense and air space supremacy no longer stand as the sole mission for the United States Air Force in the 1990s. Kinship with an investment in local and surrounding communities, that generously share their land, municipalities, highways, and other resources, are now part of the Air Force's bigger picture. This responsibility transcends from airmen to commanders, their spouses and children, and civilian Department of Defense employees.

Many bases display their gratitude periodically or annually by hosting air shows, open houses, Honor Guard performances, and bv contracting with local businesses. These activities add military flavor and tradition to the community and boost the economy.

Aside from these special events, everyday practices compound these benefits over the course of time. One such positive example for surrounding communities, as well as air bases, is recycling and resource management programs.

Tinker Air Force Base is a front-runner in Department of Defense recycling programs. Tinker is centrally located in the greater Oklahoma City area, home to more than one million people. The land of green meadows, woods, small mountainous regions, and more than 200 lakes and waterways is rich in heritage and diverse culture.

Tinker's 72nd Services Division Qualified Recycling Program (QRP) recycles wood, metal, glass, plastic, aluminum, and paper (telephone books, cardboard and newsprint). Recently its wood recycling operation, the largest of its kind in Air Force, was made more efficient with the purchase of a new wood chip grinder.

QRP Chief Russell Staton explained that when wood recycling first began at Tinker, the operation was slow, costly and required manual loading. "We had 15 employees putting wood onto a conveyor belt 24 hours a day." Later, QRP purchased a Maxigrinder that made the operation somewhat more efficient but did not keep up with the demand.

A new Maxigrinder made its debut at the Partners on the Prairie Environmental Exhibition conducted by the base's Environmental Management Division this past spring. This latest model has a grappler (an arm and claw) used to pluck wood up and feed it into a grinder chipper. A single operator in the Maxigrinder cab controls the grappler, grinder chipper, conveyor, and trailer. Pallets, tree limbs and crates pour into the machine whole, and back out onto a conveyor belt that transports the chips into a trailer. Staton says of the improvements, "Now we have one employee filling a trailer in five hours. Once the trailer is full, it is towed 200 miles to deliver its 20 tons of wood to Valiant, Oklahoma. There it is used as a natural gas substitute.

"Our wood chipping operation is so successful that currently no wood from the base goes into landfills," said Staton. He adds that no other Air Force depot recycles wood on the same scale as Tinker. There are 33 wood containers located on the base and at least 10 of those come into the center daily. We owe a lot of thanks to LaWanda Lawrence from the Environmental Management Pollution Prevention Division for helping us acquire the new Maxigrinder for QRP," says Staton. Lawrence is a solid waste program manager who records base reduction in landfill disposal and develops projects to enhance environmental programs.

Wood recycling is only a portion of QRP'S effort to prevent Tinker's potential resources from ending up in landfilis, explained Staton. What started out as a metal recycling operation with two employees in 1986, has grown into a 15-employee operation. In 1994, Tinker recovered 7,416 tons of recyclable materials that would probably be buried in Oklahoma landfills today.

QRP also promotes a variety of recycling activities that can also be considered customer services: curbside pickup of recyclable items in base housing, cash for aluminum cans, 24-hour curbside "smiling face" containers to deposit recyclable materials, monthly wood sales, and on-and off-base events to raise recycling awareness in the community.

About 50% of base housing residents voluntarily separate and ready their recyclables on a weekly basis. Residents are provided three containers for dividing paper, glass and plastic. Once at the curbside recycling facility, an aluminum can crusher compacts about 450 cans into a two-foot-wide, 18-pound bale in 90 seconds. Not only does this dense form make for easy transport, but it also brings a better price than loose cans. Sixty-five 1300-pound bales of cardboard are recycled each month. The cardboard is sent to be liquefied and reformed into cardboard products.

Perpetuate a Tradition

QRP management and staff work to perpetuate the great recycling tradition by educating children and the public about recycling and recovery. Their displays are set up at numerous events throughout the year. According to Staton all these efforts combined save taxpayers over $1 million each year. "We don't cost the taxpayers any money. Before we started recycling wood, Civil Engineering contracted a company to haul wooden material to a landfill. It cost the base over $300,000 a year. By taking over this process alone, we have saved taxpayers millions of dollars and it is incalculable when considering its impact on the environment," he says.

Staton goes on to share other examples of enormous success and Team Tinker in action. "We have over 700 barrels on base for paper recycling," Staton says proudly. "During the first eight years we picked up paper and curbside ourselves, but now a Civil Engineering quality assurance evaluator coordinates a contract to pick up paper and wood daily and curbside recyclables in base housing weekly."

Staton credits the Tinker community for much of the program's success. "We could not be a success without the combined efforts of the Tinker community. People recycle material at their work sites and base housing residents take the time to separate their recyclable materials to be picked up by curbside," he says. "Also parents in housing get their children into the act - our future recyclers."

QRP's program was named best in Air Force in 1995. It was also awarded the Certificate of Environmental Achievement by the National Awards Council for Environmental Sustainability in 1995 and 1996, and has received many other Department of Defense and Air Force awards.

So what is next on QRP's agenda? "We're going to start a compost facility. We will collect grass clippings and tree limbs to put through a grinder," Staton says as he looks to the future. "Right now Civilian Engineering is researching to determine the best location for a compost center and Environmental Management is procuring a windrow turner. (A machine to turn and oxygenate the mixture to speed up the composting process.) It will be a joint effort and become another service we can provide the Tinker community."