Back Page

The U.S. Navy base in Philadelphia, consisting of Naval Support Activity Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Naval Business Center (PNBC) has launched a new desk-side recycling program.

Beginning in early October, the Qualified Recycling Program (QRP) has been collecting all recyclable office materials using a single blue desk-side container.

Office paper, colored paper, magazines, newspapers, phone books and empty beverage containers (both aluminum and plastic) can all be recycled in the same container. The commingled system has the potential to significantly reduce the number of collection containers the Navy has placed throughout the region, as well as the number of trucks and people on the road collecting materials, according to Mike Randazzo, the base’s communications director.

This system, coupled with automated collection vehicles, has resulted in considerable savings to the Navy in other areas of the Mid-Atlantic region, as well as increasing the number and volume of commodities recycled, Randazzo says.

Materials collected are sold to a recycling firm that sorts the materials by commodity and reports weights and volumes back to the base QRP. Randazzo estimates that the system uses 75 percent fewer resources (fuel, labor and collection containers) while also increasing the number of materials the Navy can recycle.

In the previous system, white paper was recycled in the blue containers and employees took their other recyclables to a designated collection point. In the new system, employees are still responsible for taking their commingled recycling bins to a central collection point inside the building. (At PNBC, though, recycled materials will be collected by janitorial contractors at the desk.)

Cataloging Change at Limited Brands

Limited Brands, the parent company of Victoria’s Secret, has revealed a new forest protection policy for its paper sourcing that includes several environmental measures and ensures that the pulp for the company’s catalog paper will not come from endangered forests. The company also signed a new paper contract in accordance with its new policy.

"We consider environmental stewardship to be an essential part of our brand and we’re proud to take a leadership role in the catalog industry," Tom Katzenmeyer, Limited Brands senior vice president of community and philanthropy says.

Two years ago, Forest Ethics launched a campaign against Limited Brands/Victoria’s Secret and began discussions with the company shortly afterward. Since then, Limited Brands has increased its use of post-consumer recycled content, transitioning its clearance catalogs to sustainable paper with 80 percent post-consumer recycled content.

Limited Brands environmental measures include partnering with a paper supplier to eliminate all pulp supplied by the Boreal Forest in Alberta’s Rocky Mountain Foothills and British Columbia’s Inland Temperate Rainforest; shifting its catalogs to either 10 percent post-consumer scrap or at least 10 percent Forest Stewardship Council content in 2007; partnering with its supplier to shift four of its mills to Forest Stewardship Council certification; reducing overall catalog paper; committing to phasing out sourcing from endangered forests; and committing $1 million to research and advocacy to protect endangered forests.

It’s not easy being green, as environmentalist and actor Ed Begley Jr.’s wife Rachelle Carson can attest.

The couple is featured in a new series on HGTV titled "Living with Ed," which documents the conflicts that can arise when two people who don’t necessarily see eye to eye on environmental issues cohabitate.

The six-episode series began Sunday, Jan. 7, and is set in the couple’s solar-powered Hollywood home.

To tie-in with the show, www.HGTV.com is offering exclusive video tips from Begley providing viewers with practical advice on sustainable living.