Story and photo by Joe Schmitt, CFAY Public Affairs

Commander Fleet Activities Yokosuka (CFAY) received the 2011 U.S. Forces Japan Pollution Prevention Award during the Joint Environmental Conferance held at Yokota Air Force Base Aug. 15. CFAY won the award for its efforts to achieve standards, recycle and reduce waste, maintain record keeping and increase public awareness during the year.

In the write up for the award Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) Far East (FE) Public Works Department (PWD) Environmental Division onboard CFAY stated that CFAY was the first installation to declare conformance with ISO14001, which is a guideline for Environmental Management Systems to improve their environmental performance through effective management and planning.

The Environmental Division used those guidelines to either continue current efforts or initiate new ones. The Recycling Center on CFAY was one of the NAVFAC organizations that continued to make significant achievements in pollution prevention.

“We diverted about three million pounds from the solid waste stream and that saved the government about $2 million and generated about $700,000 dollars for us,” said Recycling Branch Chief Roy Ito.

CFAY currently diverts a percentage of its solid waste stream for recycling and has expanded direct on-site support services to include ships in dry-dock, restoration and reconstruction projects and demolition and deconstruction projects, according to a statement from the Environmental Division.

“We also cover the housing detachments” said Ito. “We have waste management efforts in Ikego and Negishi. We have the regular solid waste receptacles, those are the green dumpsters that everyone sees, and we have recycling centers.”

A follow-up statement Environmental Division also showed that it significantly reduced the amount of hazardous waste disposal by more that 500,000 pounds during fiscal year 2009 and 2010, as compared to 2008 by developing a process for hazardous waste disposal, evaluating and enforcing authorized use lists, optimizing reuse initiatives and finding and maximizing use of new markets for recycling materials.

“That means that the waste that has been collected is going to be disposed of correctly or made into something new,” said Ito. “Instead of ending up in the environment, we’ve recycled this waste so it can benefit other people.”

CFAY was also assessed on record keeping and increasing public awareness. By educating and engaging the public in ways to prevent pollution, the Environmental Division has helped people recycle more and reduce waste. The division also has plans for the future that will continue to make CFAY a leader in pollution prevention.

“We’re looking into starting curb side pick up for recycling,” said Ito. “There is also a cable stripper that will improve the profitability of our copper wire recycling. So, we’re always looking for a way to make our process better.”