Navy Whidbey Recycle helped the NAS Whidbey Island Combined Bachelor Housing “kick it up a notch” recently with some long overdue changes to the Barracks own Qualified Recycle Program.

In a major effort to revitalize environmental education and participation at the deck plate level, Navy Whidbey Recycle, in cooperation with the Permanent Quarters Division, has instituted a new material collection program for Barracks residents largely comprised of junior personnel, primarily E-3 and below. It’s a renovation long in the making that Recycle hopes will help rejuvenate awareness and involvement in its own award-winning program.

“This is something we’ve wanted to do for quite some time,” says Paul Brewer, head of Navy Whidbey Recycle. “We had to be careful to work closely with the Barracks senior leadership, namely at the Chief and First Class level, to ensure they would be able to pass along their expertise to the junior Sailors, before we could do anything. We wanted to make sure that the Sailors understand that recycling is a way of life throughout the Navy.”

The plan includes a complete re-work of the Barracks material collection process. In the past, Barracks personnel were required to transport the material to the Recycle Warehouse from each collection site located throughout all 11 Barracks residential buildings. Now, material will be collected by Recycle’s own On-Base Collection Crew, based on a set schedule worked out between Recycle and the Barracks.

“We completely redid each collection area with new containers, and also added a few new areas, complete with area labels and fliers in each building pointing out their locations to the residents,” said Les Hastings, Recycle’s Inventory Manager. “We got fliers out to all the residents letting them know what was coming and did a full briefing with the CBH LPO and Barracks Petty Officers from each building to let them what we expected from them in terms of supervising these areas to ensure proper usage.”

The CBH welcomed the change, having been hit hard by personnel and vehicle shortages that have made it increasingly harder for them to transport material in a timely manner.

“It’s been tough,” said CS1(SW) Michael Kirby, CBH Leading Petty Officer. “We’ve always had a big turnover in personnel, but we were always willing to make the effort to participate one way or another.

Then we lost the use of our duty pickup when GSA began reassigning and redistributing government vehicles some months back, and since then it’s been a real struggle to get material up to the (Recycle) warehouse. So this new pickup plan is ideal for us.”

Brewer was only too happy to step in with an offer to use recycling resources to pick up the slack, but adds that the job doesn’t stop there.

“This is an ideal opportunity for us, because it allows us to gain a foothold in emphasizing the concept of recycling where it needs to be focused most - with the junior Sailors,” said Brewer. “With first classes, chiefs and even officers, it’s easy to introduce something new and expect a high level of participation because they’ve already demonstrated responsibility and self-discipline, and also know the importance of immediate turnaround in getting a new plan off the ground.

“It’s everybody’s responsibility, particularly the junior Sailors who’ll be teaching these habits to their junior people one day, to ensure recycling becomes a new habit and a way of life. We will continue to provide support and education to ensure Whidbey remains the leader in Recycling throughout the Navy.”

“The key to this is going to be the senior leadership,” added Hastings, a former Signalman Second Class who served as Recycling’s first military liaison while still on active duty. “Our own First Class is very enthusiastic about making this new plan work, and Petty Officer Kirby has done a great job in taking this on board. These two, along with the rest of the CBH staff, need to work closely together to make sure the residents know what they need to do. It’s the only way the program is going to work.”

Navy Whidbey Recycle has been long recognized as the Navy’s premier recycle and composting facility, thanks largely to the efforts of the team Whidbey Spirit, a combination of both military and civilian personnel working together.

The facility has saved the Air Station millions of dollars in trash disposal costs since its inception in 1991