WHY WE’RE HERE In this Frontiers series that profiles employees talking about their jobs, environmental specialist Scott Lowry of the Environment, Health and Safety group talks about the Mesa, Ariz., site’s aggressive efforts to reduce, reuse and recycle waste. BOEING FRONTIERS / APRIL 2013 33 I began recycling at a very young age. As a kid growing up in Washington state, I remember setting out five different bins at the curb for the recycling guys. At the time, you had to sep-arate everything—white glass from brown glass from green glass. I learned the value of recycling early and it was a normal part of my family’s life. It was natural for me to bring my enthusiasm for conserving and reusing natural resources to Boeing. Today, I’m the leader of the Mesa Green Team—Boeing Employees for Environmental Protection. It’s a unique opportunity to focus my time and attention on something I feel truly passionate about—protecting the environment, and finding ways for Boeing employees to help the environment. The strong support we get at Mesa for our recycling activity says a lot about Boeing’s commitment to the environment. We improved our recycling program by first focusing on traditional materials, such as scrap metal and cardboard, then adding items such as bubble wrap and other soft plastics that help protect many of the parts we use to build the Apache and other Boeing products. My co-workers seem surprised when I tell them how much material we recycle here at the Mesa site—more than 1,000 tons (900 metric tons) in 2012, a weight equivalent to 120 Apache helicopters! We’re lucky to have a site leader at Mesa who is a strong advocate for our environmental programs. It was Tony Ham’s idea to create a full-time Green Team leader position … the only job like it at Boeing. Tony gives us a lot of support as we continue to grow and expand our plans to reduce, reuse and recycle as much material as possible. The investment has paid off. Five years ago, the Mesa site recycled about 26 percent of its solid waste and available material; today it’s nearly 60 percent. And it’s not just recycling. We’re able to identify a lot of surplus items that can be reused by Boeing, donated to local nonprofits or sold. It’s very satisfying to walk by a recycle container and see it full because you know co-workers are taking that simple step to put things where they belong instead of sending them to a landfill. Every one of us can make a difference. n patrick.a.summers@boeing.com Wrap star An employee’s passion for the environment helps keep tons of waste out of landfills By Patrick Summers and photo by Mike Goettings
Frontiers April 2013 Issue
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