(Hats Off features information about NACo Achievement Award Winners.)
Maricopa County, Ariz. - The Small Business Environmental Assistance Program (SBEAP), created by Maricopa County's Environmental Services Department, provides air quality technical assistance and educational information to the local business community. The SBEAP is a nonregulatory program designed to provide small businesses with information about regulatory requirements, methods of pollution prevention and control, types of equipment and materials available to reduce emissions, permitting assistance, and other services that can help businesses achieve environmental compliance.
Unlike an enforcement agency, the SBEAP seeks voluntary compliance. Comprehensive site visits, rather than inspections, are conducted using a nonthreatening, cooperative approach. Consultations from staff of the SBEAP are free and are considered confidential.
Orange County, Fla. - "The Business Guide to Recycling: Recyclopedia", was developed by the Orange County Resource Recovery Department. The Recyclopedia is a step-by-step guide for establishing and operating a recycling program.
The Recyclopedia answers such questions as why should businesses recycle, what items can be recycled, and how to get a program started. The guide also addresses how to estimate what recycling services are needed, reduce waste, buy recycled products, contract with local recycling companies, and drop off recyclables at county drop-off locations.
Rapides Parish, La. - In response to a state-mandated 25 percent reduction in the solid waste being sent to landfills, Rapides Parish developed a recycling and waste reduction program. The program includes curbside recycling in towns and cities; an extensive advertising and educational campaign; the design of individual recycling programs for local colleges, schools and businesses; and the development of marketing opportunities for the recycled materials.
The educational campaign includes a Recycle Mobile and a Recycle Trailer. The Recycle Mobile travels from neighborhood to neighborhood educating residents about the recycling program; and the Recycle Trailer, which travels to a different county school each month, is used to educate students.
Jefferson County, Colo. - In 1993, Jefferson County and nine municipalities established the Jefferson County Household Hazardous Waste Storage Authority to manage household and other hazardous wastes. To store this waste, until it could properly be recycled or disposed of, the authority constructed a permanent facility on a closed county landfill site.
Each of the participating jurisdictions contribute to the authority and to the maintenance and operation of the storage facility according to their population. A full-time facilities manager maintains the storage building and a host of volunteers make the operation of the storage facility possible.
(Hats Off is compiled by Peggy Beardslee, research assistant.)