Air Force launches tool kit aimed at pollution prevention

  • Published
  • By Susan Walker
  • Air Force Center for Engineering and the Environment
LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  The Air Force has launched a new tool kit to promote pollution prevention, known as P2, across the Air Force. As part of its planned Air Force Earth Day 2012 commemoration, the tool kit provides new, customizable products for use at installations Air Force-wide in creating local Earth Day campaigns.

Although the initial launch was timed to coincide with the annual Earth Day, commemorated by the Air Force April 20 this year, the tool kit is intended for use year-round, said Kevin Gabos, P2 subject matter expert with the Air Force Center for Engineering and the Environment and lead for the effort to create the tool kit.

"The tool kit provides outreach materials to help installations promote P2 on a continuing basis as they move toward meeting Air Force and Department of Defense strategic sustainability performance goals of eliminating or reducing pollution before it becomes waste," Gabos said. "It includes color logos, magnet designs, several formats for banners, three poster designs and two video public service announcements appropriate for use any time."

Conserve today, secure tomorrow is the theme of the outreach campaign, developed by AFCEE to support an Air Force initiative to reinvigorate P2 efforts worldwide.

Pollution prevention is reducing or eliminating waste at the source by modifying production processes, promoting the use of non-toxic or less-toxic substances, implementing conservation techniques and re-using materials rather than adding them to the waste stream. The Air Force-wide P2 campaign is an ongoing initiative to educate Air Force members, including active duty members, civilian employees, contractors and family members on the importance of P2 on their installations and encourage their personal involvement.

Executive Order 13514 and the Department of Defense Strategic Sustainability Performance Plan establish the P2 program framework for the Air Force. In addition to guidance, these documents set a series of goals for military services to meet in key areas like greenhouse gas management and reduction, reduction of non-hazardous waste generation, reducing hazardous material usage and improving water resources management. Specific goals in the sustainability performance plan include, among others, diverting 50 percent of non-hazardous solid waste and 60 percent of construction and demolition debris from the waste stream by fiscal 2015.

Air Force P2 policy requires installations to minimize the adverse impacts on air, water and land from all aspects of the Air Force mission through implementation of an Environmental Management System. Air Force EMS is the framework used to identify, prioritize and manage the aspects of daily operations that generate waste and pollution.

According to the latest Environmental Protection Agency statistics, in 2009, Americans generated about 243 million tons of waste annually, with the average person generating 4.34 pounds of waste per day. In that year, 82 million tons were recycled and composted, equivalent to a 33.8 percent recycling rate. On average, Americans recycled and composted 1.46 pounds of their individual waste generation of 4.34 pounds per person per day. Recycling in 2009 prevented about 178 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from being released, the equivalent of the annual emissions of 33 million cars.

Although statistics show Americans are doing better in recent years - 89 percent of Americans' waste wound up in a landfill in1980 according to the EPA compared to 54 percent in 2008 -- we still have further to go with the help of programs like P2.

The P2 campaign follows on the success of the Win the War Against Waste campaign that was updated in 2011. Both campaigns promote the familiar trifecta of reduce, reuse and recycle, with recycling being one component of P2.

For example, according to the Can Manufacturers Institute, the average American employee consumes 2.5 cans of soda each day at work, and the aluminum can industry can make up to 20 cans from recycled aluminum with the same amount of energy it takes to make one completely new can. Reprocessing an aluminum can generates a lot less waste than producing a new one from raw materials.

Reduction means reducing the amount of waste produced or reducing toxic substances in the waste according to experts. The most effective way to reduce waste is not to create it in the first place. One way to do that is by using reusable products to reduce the number of items manufactured. Reusing items, or producing them with less material or packaging, decreases waste dramatically and results in fewer materials requiring recycling, combusting for energy or winding up in landfills.

A good example of something everyone can do to help is the use of reusable beverage containers. The average American office worker, for example, uses about 500 disposable cups every year, according to Clean Air Council reports. Additional waste is created by manufacturers to replenish those items, when the waste could be prevented by workers using reusable beverage containers.

The Air Force has many larger scale examples.

A relatively new area of focus has been reusing or recycling construction material and debris on installations. When Fairchild AFB, Wash., was designing a new $43 million runway, the plan included recycling 60,000 tons of concrete and about 20,000 tons of asphalt from the existing runway. This reuse saved economic and material resources.

"It's important to reduce the amount of waste that is generated, often by finding, promoting and sharing best practices within the AF community to eliminate pollution sources at the outset," said Gabos. "Green procurement and processes will help the Air Force achieve our reduction goals and preserve resources - both materials and economic resources. It is up to each of us to participate to achieve these goals."

Additional information on the P2 campaign and the tool kit can be found on the AFCEE website at http://www.afcee.af.mil.