The Mississippi Recycling Coalition (MRC) is pleased to announce our 2009 Environmental Hero award winners. Each year, MRC seeks nominations of organizations, businesses, agencies, schools, and local governments from around the State of Mississippi that have excelled in their recycling and environmental program efforts. The nominees are then evaluated based on the following criteria: promotion of recycling as a way to create a better community, duration of environmental project(s), practicing and improving awareness of environmental stewardship, and improving community waste handling and environmental practices.

The MRC is pleased to have received more nominations this year for its Environmental Hero Awards than in previous years. All of this year’s nominees were very deserving of an award which made this year’s decisions extremely difficult. We are please to announce that the 2009 Environmental Hero Award winners are:

• The City of Quitman for the city’s successful recycling program. Quitman has one of the longest continuously running curbside recycling programs in the State of Mississippi. The City, whose population is about 2,700 people, began curbside collection of recyclables in 1998. Currently the city recycles aluminum, paper, plastic, and cardboard; however, they have plans to expand their recycling program to include styrofoam. Additionally the city has plans to compost organic wastes including food scraps, yard clippings, tree trimmings, and leaves. City officials attribute much of the success of their program to the efforts of Mr. Andy Reese who has managed the program for many years now. For their efforts to continue and expand recycling in their community, the City of Quitman receives the 2009 Local Government Recycler of the Year Award.


• The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) for being the first university in the state to offer a comprehensive single-stream campus-wide recycling program. This program utilizes over 4,000 recycling bins which are placed in classrooms, offices, and dorm rooms covering the whole campus. Their program currently recycles white paper, color paper, newsprint, magazines, wrapping paper, phonebooks, aluminum cans, aluminum foil, bimetal cans, wire hangers, and Nos. 1 and 2 plastics (soda bottles, milk jugs, laundry detergent bottles, etc.). Another aspect of USM’s program is the university’s efforts to make recycling convenient to the campus community. Bins are located in classrooms and offices throughout the campus and are emptied regularly by custodial staff. By using a single-stream system, recyclables do not need to be sorted at the source which makes recycling as convenient as possible for students, faculty and staff. To further increase campus awareness of recycling, USM is also developing a campus recycling competition called RecyclaThon. For their efforts to continue and improve recycling and recycling awareness on campus, the University of Southern Mississippi receives the 2009 Educational Institution Recycler of the Year Award.


• Sumrall Recycling, Inc. for providing numerous years of outstanding service and support to companies, local governments, schools, and other organizations in starting or expanding recycling programs in the state. Sumrall Recycling has three facilities in Mississippi with additional facilities in Alabama and Tennessee at which the company provides comprehensive recycling, salvage and recycling equipment installation services. Various recycling program managers in the state have attributed the success of their programs to the expertise and services provided by the staff of Sumrall Recycling. Additionally, Sumrall Recycling has recently expanded into construction and demolition debris recycling. These new services will assist developers in meet the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED certification requirements on construction projects. For their continual support and expertise in helping others create and expand recycling programs, Sumrall Recycling receives the 2009 Corporate Recycler of the Year Award.


• The Naval Facilities Engineering Command Southeast, Public Works Department (NAVFAC SE – PWD) for operating a comprehensive recycling system at the Naval Construction Battalion Center (NCBC) in Gulfport, MS. In fiscal year 2009, NCBC recycled over 2.4 million pounds of material which includes about 1.7 million pounds in traditional recyclables such as paper, cardboard, and metal and about 700,000 pounds of construction and demolition debris. NAVFAC SE – PWD continues to improve its recycling program by conducting outreach campaigns such as recycling promotions during Earth Day, distributing educational fliers, and recycling news articles. Additionally a state-of-the-art recycling center has been built on the base which has become part of a newly developed and implemented environmental management system. In addition to these recycling efforts, the NCBC continuously pursues innovative methods for substituting and/or recycling materials to enhance the local environmental quality. For these outstanding efforts in promoting and offering recycling services at NCBC, NAVFAC SE – PWD receives the 2009 Federal Government Recycler of the Year Award.


• Mississippi Museum of Natural Science (MNS) for being one of the first state-agencies to initiate a recycling program for office waste at their facility. MNS voluntarily began their office recycling program a number of years before state agencies were required to have a recycling program. The agency has attempted to recycle all of their office waste. In addition, despite changes in collection contractors and variable recyclable material market conditions, MNS has worked to maintain a successful recycling program at their facility. When their recycling contractor could not handle certain materials, the MNS staff took the initiative to deliver the materials to other recycling centers. Because of their persistent efforts to maintain a successful recycling program, the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science receives the 2009 State Government Recycler of the Year Award.


• Phi Theta Kappa (PTK) for promoting and encouraging their chapters across the country to implement campus recycling projects and other efforts to improve their community’s environment. PTK, headquartered in Jackson, MS, is an international honor society for two-year colleges with 30 chapters in Mississippi and more than 1,200 chapters worldwide. Every three years, PTK highlights a service area on which their chapters are to focus. For 2008-2010, PTK in a partnership with Keep America Beautiful chose to highlight environmental stewardship. Some of the areas within that environmental stewardship emphasis include educating and raising awareness of community and individual waste streams, increasing recycling opportunities in the community, and promoting a clean community. For their outstanding educational outreach efforts Phi Theta Kappa receives the 2009 Non-Profit Recycler of the Year Award.

The Mississippi Recycling Coalition would also like to recognize and honor the efforts of the other fine nominees. We commend these organizations on their outstanding efforts and commitment to recycling and/or recycling education. Special recognition goes out to the following nominees:

• The City of Starkville for expanding its drop-off recycling program to provide curbside collection and for the city’s promotion of recycling to its residents.


• The Mississippi Department of Finance and Administration for expanding recycling in the Woolfolk and State Capitol buildings to include plastic and aluminum containers and for arranging recycling services for the National Governor’s Association meeting in Biloxi in July 2009.


• The Mississippi Department of Marine Resources for their Derelict Crab Trap Removal and Recycling Program.


• Rainbow Whole Foods Cooperative for the drop-off recycling program provided to their members and to area residents.


• Recycle Hancock/Live Oak Alliance Mississippi for supporting local school and community recycling efforts and for providing teachers with materials to introduce recycling into the curriculum.


• Triangle Maintenance Services, LLC for their recycling leadership and services offered in the Golden Triangle (Starkville, Columbus, and West Point) area.


• Waste Management of Mississippi for their support of Keep Mississippi Beautiful’s recycling efforts and their support in starting a recycling program at Velma Jackson High School in Canton.

There are numerous other communities, businesses, and organizations that could have been nominated this year, and we are appreciative of the efforts of all of these unsung heroes for their efforts to grow recycling in Mississippi. MRC encourages interested persons to participate in the 2010 Environmental Heroes Awards by nominating deserving organizations.

The Mississippi Recycling Coalition is a consortium of recycling companies, local governments, state agencies, and other interested organizations in the State of Mississippi. MRC promotes and encourages responsible solid waste management through various methods such as source reduction, reuse, recycling, and composting programs. For more information on the MRC and the MRC Environmental Hero awards, please visit the MRC web page at http://www.msrecycles.org/.