McKee wins award

Gentry plant earns award for sending zero waste to the landfill

— McKee Foods Corporation of Gentry was named the winner of the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality’s 2012 Environmental Stewardship Award for the company’s extensive efforts to divert all of its waste from landfills.

ADEQ Director Teresa Marks announced the selection April 25 at the monthly meeting of the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission at ADEQ’s headquarters in North Little Rock.

McKee was one of five finalists for the 2012 Arkansas Environmental Stewardship Award.

In 2007, the snack food company began an aggressive effort to reduce its landfill waste stream by 70 percent in three years. After exceeding that original goal, the “Gentry Green Team” went further. Now all solid wastes produced at the facility are recycled, reused or converted into energy. When the waste reduction effort began in 2007, the facility was disposing of nearly 1,000 tons of solid waste each year by landfilling.

“McKee has worked hard to protect the environment,” Marks said. “By cutting the trash it sends to landfills from 1,000 tons a year to zero, it has surpassed a goal that some might have seen as impossible. The company sets ashining example, not only in its own industry, but for us all.”

Dubbed the “ENVY Award,” the annual presentation was established in 2005 by the ADEQ to recognize a major contribution by an individual or organization for efforts to enhance and protect Arkansas’ natural resources.

Marks said it was difficult to choose a winner from such an impressive field. “Each and every oneof these companies should be applauded for their efforts to make Arkansas a better place.”

The other finalists for this year’s award are:

◊ConAgra Foods frozen food plant at Batesville, which installed energy-efficient equipment, a more efficient grease-removal process and marketed the waste grease for reuse in biofuels, and expanded the company’s recycling program.

◊Dassault Falcon Jet of Little Rock, for the airplane manufacturer’s “Eco-design” sustainability program. The program involved the installation of new, more energy-efficient equipment, lighting and windows at the plant, as well as reduction or elimination of toxic materials used in aircraft manufacturing.

◊Pratt and Whitney’s aircraft engine parts manufacturing facility at Springdale for a program which reverts waste materials to their original manufacturers for reuse and recycling. Pratt and Whitney reduced industrial process waste by 55 percent last year, saving thousands of dollars in manufacturing and disposal costs.

◊The Pulaski County Regional Solid Waste Management District for “The Amazing Recycling Race.” The district partnered with Waste Management, Inc., to encourage singlestream recycling for a year at selected apartment complexes in Little Rock, North Little Rock and Maumelle. More than 142,000 pounds of recyclable materials were collected, and the district compiled data which will assist it in future recycling efforts.

News, Pages 5 on 05/02/2012