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USGS Recycling Program Honored by the City of Menlo Park, CA
The Environmental Quality Commission of the City of Menlo Park, CA, recently honored the U.S. Geological Survey with its "Environmental Quality Award for 2001." The USGS program that was particularly cited by the city was the USGS "Supply Exchange," in addition to the Federal agency's overall recycling program. The USGS Supply Exchange was opened at the 345 Middlefield Road facility in 1996, as a place for employees to drop off or pick up unwanted but still-usable office, field, and laboratory supplies, and has evolved through several onsite relocations. "This effort has proved to be a huge success," said USGS chief of operations, Martha Burbidge, "and each year diverts a small mountain of usable materials from local landfills and at the same time saving the Government untold dollars in procurement for new materials. One of our laboratory managers salvaged more than $5,000 in glassware that was no longer needed by another lab." When the Supply Exchange becomes overburdened with items that no one within the organization can use, the materials are donated to local schools and charitable organizations. Maps, rock samples, and computers are donated to area schools, and in the year 2000, five pallets of surplus maps and other publications were donated to the Bridge to Asia Foundation for distribution to university students in China. In addition to the Supply Exchange, employees at the USGS have recycled everything from aluminum cans and office paper to packing materials like "plastic peanuts" for more than a decade. The successful recycling program at the USGS and its Supply Exchange owe their creation and continued existence to the efforts of Sue Hunt, an environmentally concerned employee who started and oversees both programs, in addition to her regular duties as a logistics manager with the Coastal and Marine Geology team. In 2001, Sue was honored with a White House "Closing the Circle" award for her recycling efforts, and in 1999, she was similarly honored by the U.S. Department of the Interior.
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in this issue:
Radio Interview Explores African Dust Florida Coastal Storm Defenses Environmental Academy Web Site Congressional Briefing—Sea Otter Research
John Hughes Clarke—"Imaging Water Mass Variability"  |
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U. S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey
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