Federal Government’s Green Initiative Challenge Program Sees Success

As an exercise aimed at promoting environmental awareness and the beneficial effects of electronic product recycling, the United States Environmental Protection Agency launched the Federal Green Challenge program to all the federal government organizations. As a part of this challenge, federal government organizations had to compete with one another, and one federal agency would be selected above all for their green initiatives and achievements.

For the year 2014, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Western Laboratory, was presented the Federal Green Challenge Award for its electronic recycling initiatives taken during the last year. DEA West was chosen for this award as they achieved the maximum electronic recycling percentage increase in the last year compared to other participating federal agencies.

This award was presented by the EPA regional administrator for the Pacific Southwest at the DEA National Lab Directors Conference held on June 9th in San Francisco. According to the results published by the EPA, DEA Western Lab had recycled and donated more than 8,200 pounds of electronics in the last year, which is a 10% increase in recycling pounds compared to the previous year. This increase in recycling pound percentage was higher than the increase achieved by the other 400 participating agencies in the Federal Green Challenge.

Jared Blumenfeld, Regional Administrator, EPA, presented the award to DEA Western Laboratory. While presenting the award, Blumenfeld praised the efforts put in by the DEA in recycling and donating thousands of pounds in the last year.

Partnership with Electronic Recycling Service Providers

The DEA was able to achieve this enviable feat by partnering with reputed electronic recycling service providers in the region. The certified electronics recycling service provider collected recyclable electronic lab instruments given by the DEA from the collection centers that are earmarked for collecting electronic recycling products. In addition to giving electronic lab instruments for recycling, DEA also donated operational lab instruments to colleges and universities.

While receiving the award, DEA Western Lab director Bryan Henderson detailed the various challenges faced by his team in achieving a 10% increase in electronic recycling pounds. He remarked that the last year was particularly challenging for their lab as they were managing their relocation to a different place in the region. The environmental management team of DEA western lab recognized the opportunities provided by relocation with respect to recycling more electronic accessories. He particularly complimented the environment management team for proactively identifying the opportunities and working relentlessly with other teams to exceed the set target. He praised his environment management team for contributing in a positive manner to the national green initiative launched by the Federal Environment Protection Agency.

Electronic component recycling goes a long way in preventing dumping in landfills used electronic goods containing poisonous and environmentally-destructive chemical elements. The EPA advises the various agency participants to take the help of certified electronic recycling service providers, who have tremendous expertise when it comes to reclaiming precious elements from electronic waste.

EPA authorities said that this Federal Green challenge program is actually a part of their ambitious Sustainable Material Management program. Through this green challenge program, in 2014 alone around 390,000 tons of electronic waste material was prevented from heading to landfills.