By Melissa Buckley, Fort Leonard Wood Public Affairs Office

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (November 8, 2024) — The Fort Leonard Wood Recycling Center is scheduled to celebrate America Recycles Day, a Keep America Beautiful national initiative, Nov. 15 by providing tours of the facility and accepting e-waste, such as batteries, cell phones and other electronics, in addition to items commonly recycled there.

“This event, including disposal costs are complimentary,” said Robert Schultz, Directorate of Public Works environmental protection assistant. “We will also be conducting tours of the recycling center and briefly describing the strategy we use and the benefits of recycling.”

The event will take place from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Fort Leonard Wood Recycling Center, located at Bldg. 2549 on Ordinance Drive.

“We will have attendants on-site to help unload recyclables to make the drive through process fast and easy,” Schultz said.

When most people think about e-waste, according to Schultz, they think about computers or televisions, but the center here will accept almost anything electrically generated.

“We will take household electrical items, such as televisions, microwaves, toasters, lamps and fans. We are collaborating with a company that separates the e-waste and removes the electric components. It reduces what goes into the landfill and recycles it, so that we can reuse it again,” Schultz said. “Refrigerators and air conditioners must have the refrigerant removed before acceptance.

Schultz said this year they are also accepting residential lawn and garden equipment, with oil and gas removed.

“We will accept used oil separately,” he said.

Last year, the center had a total of 68 people drop off items during the event, collecting more than a ton of e-waste and 86 pounds of batteries.

Beyond the legal and ethical reasons to recycle, Schultz said the post generates significant revenue from recycling that supports many Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation projects.

“Every time you recycle, you are enhancing life on post. This is money we put back into the community,” he added.

Fort Leonard Wood currently recycles more than 50 percent of total solid waste annually.

Fort Leonard Wood generates more than 1,700 tons of recyclable material each year, Schultz said in about three years, that would be the same weight as, “an average U.S. Navy destroyer.”

He said one of the most common misconceptions about the Recycling Center is only people working and living on post can use it.

“A lot of folks who live off post have the idea that our facility isn’t available to them. Anyone with access to Fort Leonard Wood can bring items to the Recycling Center,” Schultz said.

There are three recycling drop-off locations on Fort Leonard Wood. The primary collection point is the Recycling Center, located in Bldg. 2549 on Ordnance Drive. An attendant is available from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays at the center. There are also drop-off bins available 24/7 that can be found outside the fence of the Recycling Center, the Main Exchange parking lot and the Mini Mall parking lot.

Commonly accepted items include glass, aluminum, white paper, cardboard and plastic types 1 and 2. For a complete list of items that are regularly recycled on Fort Leonard Wood, visit the DPW recycling website.

For more information, call 573.569.3880.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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About Fort Leonard Wood

Fort Leonard Wood is a thriving and prosperous installation that has evolved from a small basic training post more than 75 years ago to a premier Army Center of Excellence that trains more than 80,000 military and civilians each year.

Fort Leonard Wood is home to the U.S Army Maneuver Support Center of Excellence and three U.S. Army schools: the U.S. Army Engineer School; U.S. Army Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear School; and the U.S. Army Military Police School. In addition to training engineer, CBRN and military police specialties for the Army, Fort Leonard Wood also provides gender-integrated in-processing and Basic Combat Training for new Soldiers.

Fort Leonard Wood also hosts and trains with the largest Marine Corps Detachment and Air Force Squadron on any Army installation as well as a large Navy construction detachment.