Jack Horner, VP Sales and Recycling,
Goodwill Industries in Knoxville, Tennessee

Ed Hurley Memorial Paper Recycling Award

Mr. Jack Horner has worked with Goodwill Industries for ten years. For the past five years, Mr. Horner has operated Goodwill's material recovery facility (MRF) and worked to fulfill the organization's mission of providing vocational services and employment opportunities to people with barriers to employment. The MRF serves the city of Morristown and Hamblen County's curbside recycling programs, 60 industrial and commercial customers, and drop-off recycling centers in Grainger and Greene counties. Through Mr. Horner's efforts, the volume of recovered paper at the MRF has increased from 854 tons in 2004 to 1,695 tons in 2006.

In order to maintain high quality, Mr. Horner has trained both MRF staff and Goodwill consumers to inspect materials and remove contaminants. Further outreach has included working with local Keep America Beautiful affiliates and the local Chamber of Commerce to educate the public and industry on recycling best practices. Mr. Horner has served for two years on the Board of Directors for the Tennessee Recycling Coalition. Goodwill Industries-Knoxville was awarded the 2006 Tennessee Recycling Coalition Non-Profit Recycler of the Year award.

Mr. Horner promotes recycling throughout the community in a variety of ways: He has served two years on the Board of Directors for the Tennessee Recycling Coalition, served on the Solid Waste Planning Committee for Hamblen County government, assisted Morristown and Hamblen's Keep America Beautiful program in planning Waste in Workplace Workshops, and serves as an advisor on recycling to John Litz, the assistant majority leader of the Tennessee House of Representatives.

Mr. Horner has a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Carson Newman College and served for 20 years as a volunteer fire chief and full-time battalion chief with the Rural Metro Fire Department.

AF&PA is proud to recognize Mr. Jack Horner as the 2007 Ed Hurley Memorial Paper Recycling Award recipient.

Ed Hurley

To learn more about Ed Hurley for whom the individual recycling award is named, click on any of the links below to view a video tribute.

Learn more about Ed Hurley's positive impact on paper recycling, by watching this short video. High Speed Connection Windows Media Player | Real Player Low Speed Connection Windows Media Player | Real Player

HP
Palo Alto, California

Business Leadership Recycling Award

Recycling is a key focus at HP with targeted initiatives and widespread employee participation to reduce waste volumes. In 2006, HP had a goal to divert 87 percent of its waste from landfill, and the company was able to divert 88 percent.

To achieve this level of paper recycling, HP has established recycling programs at 30 locations across the U.S.

At all of these locations, programs are in place to educate employees about the recycling process, and paper is collected in desk-side containers. HP also works with service providers to train custodial staff on recycling guidelines.

In 2006, HP expanded its program across the company's San Francisco Bay Area, Houston, and San Diego sites and identified new markets for co-mingled paper, thereby increasing recycling volumes.

City of Rock Hill, South Carolina

Small Community

The City of Rock Hill runs a successful community curbside recycling program in addition to collecting various grades of paper from 200 local businesses. For the fiscal year 2005-2006, the city collected more than 750 tons of cardboard and more than 180 tons of office paper. Overall, the recovery of these materials saved the city more than $90,000 in landfill fees.

To encourage increased recycling, the city conducts several fun and innovative programs. They distribute recycling bins at all city-sponsored events and capture recoverable materials from block parties, church picnics, and school events. The city also held a Rock Hill Recycling Challenge - a contest among neighborhoods to increase the amount of recyclables in curbside bins in a six-week period. The winning neighborhood received a free block party with food and entertainment. In addition, an ongoing mystery recycler program selects random homes each month to see if recycling bins are at the curb. Winners receive $50 and are featured in a local commercial.

To encourage recycling through student outreach, the City of Rock Hill, York County and the Museum of York County worked together to give approximately 115 classroom presentations for 6,778 students. 800 fifth grade students were reached during an America Recycles Day event, 3,030 sixth grade students attended singer Jack Golden's performances of "A Little Bit Goes A Long Way," and 1,300 first grade students learned about recycling from the "Clean and Green Clowns."

Trash clean up has also been turned into a recycling opportunity. The Rock Hill Clean and Green Board, a Keep America Beautiful affiliate, helped participate in and promote the Great American Cleanup event in 2006. The city coordinated 250 volunteers for this Cleanup, collecting 264 bags of trash - much of which was paper that was later recycled.

AF&PA is proud to recognize the City of Rock Hill, South Carolina with the 2007 AF&PA Community Recycling Award in the small community category. For more information on Rock Hill's program, please visit:
http://www.cityofrockhill.com/ publicworks/resisanitation.asp.

City of Perrysburg, Ohio

Small Community

Paper recycling has paid off for the City of Perrysburg. Paper recovery has increased from more than 440 tons in 2005 to nearly 678 tons in 2006. With this increase in recovery, the City of Perrysburg was able to avoid more than $45,000 in tipping fees at the local landfill.

The City of Perrysburg was able to increase curbside recycling through a variety of measures. Curbside recycling is heavily promoted to all current and new residents through a 19-page recycling and refuse brochure describing the program and how to participate. Recycling information is also pushed through the city's Web site and through two of the area's newspaper's - the Perrysburg Messenger Journal/Advisor and the Sentinel Tribune. Public service announcements (PSAs) are used extensively to keep residents up-to-date on curbside recycling and other city events.

The City of Perrysburg also hosts many special recycling programs such as the twice-yearly Recycling Roundup Day and a drop off cardboard recycling effort that has grown to collect over 12 cubic yards of cardboard per week. On November 15th, America Recycles Day, visitors to the Way Public Library were greeted by Keep Perrysburg Beautiful staff and volunteers and asked to sign a form saying that they recycle and greeted with a "mood" pencil to show they were "In the mood to recycle."

AF&PA is proud to recognize the City of Perrysburg, Ohio with the 2007 AF&PA Community Recycling Award in the small community category.

City of Dorchester County, South Carolina

Large Community

Realizing that students are the recyclers of tomorrow, Dorchester County set out to design a comprehensive educational program about recycling in its schools. While schools were recycling to some extent already, Dorchester County found that containers at schools were often contaminated, which negatively impact the quality of the recovered paper. As a result, in spring 2003 the county created a school-based recycling program called Recycling Troopers.

Recycling Troopers are students in county schools that encourage classroom recycling by issuing tickets or gold stars, setting up bins, distributing recycling information, and making sure recovered paper remains uncontaminated. They wear badges and not only collect bins, but also check for contamination by non-recyclables. If a classroom continues to fail inspection, a few students and a parent volunteer give a 10-minute recycling overview.

One prime example is the program at Spann Elementary School. At the beginning of the year, the first grade class made signs for each recycling bin at school with artwork and slogans to encourage recycling. Every week, a lead teacher selects five students in his or her classroom to be the "troopers," with a parent volunteer assisting the program. The trooper responsibility then rotates throughout the school - each week a different grade, classroom or special area (library, principal's office, etc.).

In 2006, the Dorchester County Recycling Trooper programs had 120 student participants in 11 schools with 85 percent participation in paper recycling. This increased focus on school paper recycling netted 397 tons of paper in 2006, saved the Dorchester County Schools system more than $4,000 in waste disposal costs, and extended the life of county landfills.

The Recycling Trooper program is now a multi-year participation program for Kindergarten through sixth grade students, helping achieve continuity and maximum success in the Dorchester county recycling program.

AF&PA is proud to recognize Dorchester County, South Carolina with the 2007 AF&PA Community Recycling Award in the large community category. To learn more about Dorchester County's recycling program, please visit http://www.dorchestercounty.net.

Harvard University
Cambridge, Massachusetts

College and University

Harvard University has been recycling since its founding in 1636 and therefore, has a long history in recycling. In fact, it's said that during the American Revolution, Harvard students ripped the lead sheathing off Harvard Hall to be recycled into bullets.

Harvard Recycling services 211 stops spanning the 350-acre Cambridge and Allston campuses, and is considered the largest urban campus recycling program in the northeastern United States. From July 2005 to June 2006, Harvard University students, faculty, staff, and contractors diverted more than 2,600 tons of paper for recycling. Harvard's recycling program has also saved the Faculty of Arts and Sciences more than $120,000 in the past five years and the Harvard Dining Services more than $200,000 in the past eight years. These savings, in turn, fund recycling efforts such as the Resource Efficiency and Graduate Green Living programs.

Each building is responsible for administering their own program, which allows building managers to select their own style and approach to recycling. However, Harvard Recycling does provide some basic items, including signs, labels, specification sheets, deskside recycling baskets, and receptacles.

To boost recycling participation, Harvard educates the custodial staff about the benefits of recycling, hosts annual tours of the paper processing plant, sends out monthly Recycling Update newsletters to more than 1,400 students, faculty, and staff. Harvard also sponsors contests between undergraduate dormitories, awarding a "Green Cup" each year to the dormitory showing best improvement in recycling, waste reduction, and energy conservation.

Harvard's full-service recycling effort began in 1992 when it was decided to coordinate the disparate school and department recycling efforts. Since then, Harvard has raised its overall recycling rate from 5 percent of refuse in 1992 to 44 percent in 2006.

AF&PA is proud to recognize Harvard University with the 2007 AF&PA School Recycling Award in the college and university category. For information on Harvard's recycling program, please visit http://www.uos.harvard.edu/information/dep_fac_sol.shtml.

Potter Street Elementary
Bainbridge, Georgia

School-wide

From August 2006 to February 2007, Potter Street Elementary recovered nearly 10,000 pounds of paper, up from just 2,000 pounds between 1998 and 1999. Even more impressive is the fact that the school now enjoys 100 percent classroom participation in its recycling program.

In 1998, Potter Street Elementary kicked off an ambitious recycling program, named We Always Recycle (WAR), to divert recyclable resources from the waste stream. Daily, Potter Street students are busy collecting, counting, breaking down boxes, bagging, and weighing materials to be recycled. Keep America Beautiful and Keep Georgia Beautiful have recognized Potter Street's effort as a superior recycling program highlighting the fact that 450 students can indeed make a difference.

Recycling not only saves Potter Street money by eliminating the landfill cost, but it also teaches students how to be good environmental stewards. Potter Street has also been honored with grants and awards that fund expanded recycling and environmental programs.

Reaching 100 percent school participation has involved a variety of partnerships with the local Keep America Beautiful affiliate, the local Coca-Cola Bottling Company, International Paper, local gardening centers, The Georgia Youth Science and Technology Center at Bainbridge College, the high school agriculture department, and the Decatur Recycling Center.

Potter Street Elementary also provides a variety of programs meant to educate faculty, staff, students, administrators and family members about recycling benefits, including frequent visits by "Dr Recycling" " - a staff member with recyclable materials attached to his/her lab coat, helping children identify items that can and can not be recovered for recycling. Congratulations to Potter Street Elementary for earning the 2007 AF&PA School Recycling Award in the school-wide category.

Barbara Bush Elementary
Grand Prairie, Texas

School-wide

During 2006, Barbara Bush Elementary recovered an outstanding 35.7 tons of paper, and achieved 100 percent classroom participation in its recycling program. The school's success has been the result of teamwork among the Bush Environmental Stewardship Team (BEST) comprised of grade level representatives, students, parents, administrators, volunteers, the Green and Clean Campus Program (GCCP), and AbitibiBowater Inc., a major recycling company. Each day after school, fifth grade honor council students collect classroom recycling bins, tally up the weight and volume of the bins, and award classroom points. Classroom winners are announced each Monday and honored on the environmental bulletin board. AbitibiBowater awards a monetary donation each month based on the amount of paper recycled. During 2006, Barbara Bush Elementary received more than $250, which went into a dedicated environmental account to sustain an outdoor habitat and other environmental stewardship programs. What started out as a fun contest has turned into a way of life for students at Barbara Bush Elementary. Curriculum materials, lessons, and projects are designed to build upon environmentally sound principles, and it is the school's goal to educate students and their families about the benefits of recycling so that recycling is taken seriously not only at school, but also at home. For example, a recent campus project, called Texas Recycles Day, asked each grade level to design a component of an agenda that would review recycling best practices or introduce a new recycling concept to the student body. Once the agenda came together, everyone - students, faculty, custodial staff, administrators, and city and district support staff - came together for an afternoon "pep rally" on recycling. Congratulations to Barbara Bush Elementary for earning the 2007 AF&PA School Recycling Award in the school-wide category. Photo requests can be directed to Caroline March-Long at caroline@fourleafpr.com.

2007 Recycling Awards Video