Fort Hood's total solid waste cost avoidance exceeded \$2.5 million in
2006. Fort Hood operates many diverse programs aimed at minimizing the
wastes generated on the 218,000 acre installation, which supports a
daily population of 374, 416. The installation is located in Central
Texas, nestled just south west of Waco and north of Austin. Solid waste
generation was determined to be Fort Hood's #1 significant aspect
through its Environmental Management System (EMS). Since it was the most
significant aspect, waste prevention became Fort Hoods' "greatest"
opportunity to improve on installation environmental performance.
Installation wide departments and agencies, staffed with highly
dedicated professionals working together found ways to increase Fort
Hood's waste prevention efforts. Fort Hood's recycle program is
recognized as the largest and most efficient in the Army. Fort Hood's
training and outreach reached over 11,000 soldiers, civilians, family
members and community personnel. The result of all these programs can
easily be displayed in the following graphs.

![](media/image1.wmf){width="3.246456692913386in" height="2.75in"}

Source: BioCycle Journal of Composting & Organics Recycling, Vol. 47,
No.4, April, 2006

Fort Hood's efforts exceeded both state and national averages. This is
one example of the tremendous day to day waste prevention activities
thriving on Fort Hood. Everyone is involved in the prevention of
pollution and waste; which is part of Fort Hood's EMS policy. The
numbers show that we are creating culture and attitude change in the way
individuals do business on our installation.

![](media/image3.jpeg){width="3.8161417322834645in"
height="2.356299212598425in"}***Training and Outreach - The Secret of
Our Success.***

Fort Hood is committed to actively seeking out training and outreach
opportunities at all levels; increasing environmental stewardship and
awareness of Fort Hood's environmental policy, programs, and services.
Fort Hood's Senior Environmental Trainer and Environmental Outreach
Coordinator work together to educate all Fort Hood employees residents,
Soldiers, contractors, civilians, and families about the effects of
their actions on the environment, and the surrounding community.

In 2006, Fort Hood's Senior Environmental Trainer trained over 300
Soldiers, contractors, and civilians as unit/organization Environmental
Compliance Officers (ECO). Fort Hood also trains entire units of
Soldiers during Quarterly Unit Environmental Training, developed by
installation training staff. Commanders/leaders, and all ranks of
Soldiers attend the event to receive up-to-date environmental
information. In 2006, over 1,000 personnel took advantage of this easy
option to comply with quarterly environmental training requirements.
Additionally, Fort Hood's environmental trainer and the Environmental
Compliance Assessment Team provided environmental awareness training via
formal and informal briefings to nearly 11,400 Soldiers, contractors,
and civilians.

Fort Hood has the largest Qualified Recycling Program (QRP) in the
United States Army. The diversity and adaptability of the program keeps
it strong and continually growing. In 2006 alone, Fort Hood processed
over 7,516 tons of recyclable material, which generated over \$1.5
million in revenue, while avoiding over \$217K in disposal costs. In
2006 the recycle program added motor recycling, tire rim recycling, and
class III mail (junk mail) from local community post offices to its
recycling efforts. The Recycle Program invests heavily in community
outreach creating the necessary culture change to increase recycling and
reduce waste. Fort Hood's recycle program spends countless hours
training students, civilians, soldiers, and their families on the
benefits of recycling and reducing waste.

![](media/image5.jpeg){width="3.3854166666666665in"
height="2.4895833333333335in"}

> ![](media/image6.wmf){width="3.540944881889764in"
> height="2.6763779527559057in"}

Fort Hood operates a very diverse integrated solid waste management
program. Due to Fort Hood's immense size, equivalent to a medium city in
Texas, the amount of solid waste generated on the installation is quite
large. It takes creativity and determination to find ways to divert the
kind of waste generated by an entire city from our landfill. In 2006,
Fort Hood generated 73,900 tons of solid waste. Fort Hood successfully
diverted nearly 70% of this waste, or 49,700 tons from our landfill.
This diversion resulted in a cost avoidance of \$1.4 million dollars.

Fort Hood also went out into the community and created partnerships. We
partnered with local universities, Texas A&M and Tarleton State
University, as well as our federal and state agencies. We partnered with
the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), The Texas Commission on
Environmental Quality (TCEQ), and other charitable organizations like
Habitat for Humanity (HfH) and developed programs to turn waste products
into re-useable products. In addition, Fort Hood continues to work with
the Central Texas Council of Governments to support regional waste
reduction initiatives and to develop markets for recycled materials.

![](media/image7.jpeg){width="3.376388888888889in"
height="2.3958333333333335in"}

Fort Hood's innovative material substitution efforts have a huge impact
on the installation. Fort Hood's inert material management program
diverted over 90K tons from the landfill during 2006. The reuse of waste
asphalt shingles and asphalt roadway for surface road improvements
reduce dependency on exterior purchases, while reducing over 1,000 tons
of waste material from the landfill, saving the installation almost
\$30,000. Partnering with Texas A&M University, Fort Hood developed a
process that reuses asphalt and masonry material generated around the
installation, while diverting over 9,900 tons of waste from the
landfill, saving the installation over \$285,000 in disposal costs. On
another project, Fort Hood's inert material management program provided
over 4,000 tons of processed asphalt used for roads to installation
stables, saving the installation over \$18,000 in new material
purchases, along with a cost avoidance of over \$100,000 in disposal
costs. Fort Hood's inert material management and compost programs,
exemplify long-term sustainability initiatives used in waste prevention,
erosion control, air and water quality challenges, and land reclamation.

![](media/image9.jpeg){width="2.9868055555555557in" height="2.125in"}

Fort Hood also excels in special waste management. In the state of
Texas, Petroleum, Oil, and Lubricants (POL) contaminated soil is
classified a special waste. Fort Hood's POL contaminated soil
remediation program, the Army's first, remediates over 2,000 tons of
contaminated soil, saving the installation over \$200,000 during the
award period. Fort Hood remains on the forefront of new process
development through the implementation of a "natural" remediation
process and the windrow composting of POL contaminated soils, both Army
firsts. These two projects will greatly reduce current processing times,
while saving Fort Hood over \$75,000 in disposal cost.

![](media/image10.jpeg){width="2.472916666666667in"
height="2.2666666666666666in"}

Late in 2006, Fort Hood established an electronics (e-waste) waste
recycling program. The first objective of the program is to assist
current DRMO efforts in electronics recycling of installation and
property book electronic items. The second is to collect and find
feasible outlets for household electronics items. Fort Hood's household
electronic recycling takes household electronics from soldiers, family
members, tenants and retirees. Although only two months old, the program
assisted in the recycling of 12,000 pounds of installation electronics
and 9,000 pounds of household electronics. In the picture to the right,
Classification Unit Team Members David Morgan and Gary Tooke assist in
the turn in of CPUs, and monitors.

Fort Hood continues the never-ending quest to protect the environment
and sustain the mission to train, deploy and redeploy the most lethal
war-fighters in the world. Fort Hood is a leader in environmental
stewardship among Army installations. By developing and using
partnerships with local, state, federal, and private organizations and
agencies; Fort Hood has secured open, long-term productive relationships
to bolster its environmental mission. Mission and training ability are
enhanced by integrating environmental concerns into daily activities
using innovative techniques. Fort Hood has improved cost-avoidance and
efficiency while spreading environmental stewardship across the
installation's divisions and agencies. All Fort Hood personnel excel in
solid waste reduction and recycling. With a strong commitment to
environmental management, mission enhancement, community involvement and
outreach, Fort Hood continues to build a sustainable installation to be
"The Great Place".