Boeing Everett Earns Top National Recycling Award

EVERETT, Wash., Sept. 18, 1995 -- The Boeing Commercial Airplane Group Everett facility has received the National Recycling Coalition's (NRC) top honor for corporate recyclers -- the 1995 Annual Award for Outstanding Corporate Leadership.

Each year the NRC recognizes outstanding recycling achievements and leadership, publicizes success stories and helps bring the nation's best efforts into the spotlight.

"The Everett site and The Boeing Company are honored to receive this national recognition," said Tim Hanley, recycling coordinator for Everett Site Facilities, who accepted the award for Boeing. "Our success is the result of the hard work of employees who have initiated recycling practices that are beneficial to our business, our communities and the environment."

The Everett site employs more than 22,000 people who manufacture and support the Boeing 747, 767 and 777 airplanes. Through a comprehensive program, the site recycles 57 percent of its total annual waste materials, including 20 different commodities such as wood, paper, metals, cardboard, fiberglass, oil and plastic. In 1994, this recycling rate helped the site cut its solid waste overhead costs by 34 percent. The division's goal is to achieve a 65- percent recycling rate by 1997 and 80 percent by 1999.

The Everett-site's program is part of a larger, companywide effort to prevent waste and manage facilities in a way that is environmentally and economically beneficial, Hanley noted.

"To put our efforts into proper perspective, each month the Boeing Everett site recycles enough material to fill nine 747-400 freighters. Without recycling, these reusable materials would have ended up in a landfill," he said. "Our site-wide program is a very good example of the tremendous recycling improvements being made throughout The Boeing Company."

Boeing has participated in recycling since World War II with programs for aluminum, titanium and magnesium shavings, bolts and other metals. In 1973, the company expanded its program to include paper. In 1987 it expanded the program further to include aluminum beverage cans and cardboard.

The Boeing program encourages employees, contractors, customers and others to reduce waste and recycle in a variety of ways. For example:

The company has pursued a more focused strategy for purchasing environmentally preferred products that are easily recyclable, have high recycled content and post-consumer waste content, contain little or no toxic substances and whose packaging is designed for reuse.

Several Everett-site employee-led Continuous Quality Improvement teams focus on recycling. One team, in particular, focuses entirely on fiberglass, composite materials, polyester resins and plastics. Its members include representatives from outside agencies and businesses.

An aluminum can recycling program is operated solely by volunteers throughout the company. One hundred percent of the proceeds are directed to Special Olympics and other programs serving people with disabilities. In 1994, these proceeds totaled nearly $60,000.

A newspaper recycling program gives employees the option of recycling newspapers through "Save-A-Tree" deskside collection containers, or depositing them in centralized collection boxes located near most of the company's entry gates. Sixty percent of the revenue generated from those newspaper collection points is donated to Special Olympics in the name of The Boeing Company.

The Everett site recently implemented a monthly auction to sell tools, furniture, materials and equipment no longer required for production or site maintenance.

Because of the high volume and quality of its recyclables, Boeing has secured long-term relationships with some of the most innovative recyclers in the Puget Sound area such as Weyerhaeuser and Boise Cascade. These companies and others are working with Boeing on closed-loop recycling programs, which take waste materials and transform them into useful business products.

In 1994, the Boeing Everett site was named "Recycler of the Year" by Snohomish County. The State of Washington Department of Ecology named the plant, "Best Business Commercial Waste Reduction and Recycling Program" in 1995. The Boeing Everett Division also is a "Distinguished Business in the Green" -- the advanced level in the regional Green Works Program, which recognizes businesses for environmental excellence.

For its overall efforts to improve the environment, Boeing received a 1995 Washington Governor's Award for Continued Excellence in Pollution Prevention -- its second such award in the last three years.