The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) names the Delaware River and Bay Authority (DRBA) a WasteWise National Partner of the Year.
WasteWise is part of EPA’s sustainable materials management efforts, promoting the use and reuse of materials more productively.
And the DRBA is one of 20 organizations lauded for its efforts in that effort.
Delaware River and Bay Authority spokesman Jim Salmon says the agency is committed to recycling.
“Our environmental sustainability and our carbon footprint…we’ve done a number of things over the years to be more environmentally friendly," Salmon said. "And so over the past six years, we’ve focused our conservation resources in a number of areas.”
Salmon notes that the DRBA recycled 85-million pounds of material last year - that’s up from the four million pounds of waste diverted from waste streams and recycled in 2020.
Salmon calls it a team effort, “The Authority’s Environmental Health and Safety Department has done an outstanding job of coordinating with our engineering department and obtaining the support of our contractors to have them participate so that things that may normally end up in a landfill are now recycled.”
DRBA recycles 25 unique commodities across its network of bridges, three ferries and five regional airports in two states, including aluminum, asphalt cardboard, NiCad batteries, e-waste electronics, used cooking oil, shredded paper and oil filters.
