Public Outreach and Assistance Division Ryan Benefield, Acting Chief
Congratulations to the 2011 Arkansas Environmental Stewardship Award winner!
Click on thumbnail to see full size image.
Congratulations to Jonesboro FritoLay, Inc. for winning the 2011
Arkansas Environmental Stewardship Award, presented by ADEQ Director Teresa Marks
April 22 during the monthly Pollution Control and Ecology meeting in North Little
Rock.
The award, nicknamed the ENVY of Arkansas, honors the quality and
innovation of the state’s environmental projects and programs.
The company implemented a broad conservation, recycling, and sustainability
initiative involving elements such as solid waste reduction and recycling, improved
boiler efficiency, wastewater treatment improvements, reduced process water consumption,
and fuel reduction involving facility vehicles. As a result of the program: Landfill
waste has been reduced from 25 percent of the facility’s waste stream to less than
one percent; water usage has decreased 75 percent; electric usage declined by 58
percent; and natural gas consumption has been cut by 68 percent since 1999. In addition,
during 2010, the plant recycled more than 3,100 tons of materials such as cardboard,
paper, wooden pallets, scrap metal, plastics, food processing waste, and packaging.
Four other finalists for the 2011 ENVY Award also were recognized
during the meeting:
A joint project involving the Cargill, Inc., meat processing
facility at Springdale and the Illinois River Watershed Partnership (IRWP) to
both improve water quality in the Illinois River basin and provide an educational
project to assist individuals and organizations in developing water quality
improvement activities of their own. The Cargill/IWRP project involves the establishment
of “rain gardens” on plots of land planted with varieties of plants native to
the watershed. The gardens function by filtering out up to 90 percent of
pollutants in rainfall and runoff while allowing the water to drain through
the soil and help recharge groundwater resources. Interested parties are provided
with instructions and assistance to establish their own rain gardens.
The ConAgra Foods, Inc., frozen food packaging facilities at
Batesville and Russellville for their conservation efforts in several areas,
including increased energy efficiency, improved wastewater treatment, and reduced
solid waste generation. Lighting upgrades and other energy efficiency measures
have reduced electricity use at the Batesville facility by more than 3.2 million
kilowatt hours per year, which means a reduction of nearly 1,500 tons of greenhouse
gas emissions. Wastewater treatment improvements at the Russellville plant reduced
total suspended solids by 67 percent and biochemical oxygen demand by 33 percent
between 2006 and 2009. Waste reduction and recycling efforts have diverted 93
and 72 percent of the plants’ former solid waste streams at Batesville and Russellville,
respectively.
Delta Plastics of the South, located in Little Rock, has implemented
a comprehensive recycling program that has resulted in the collection and recycling
of steadily increasing amounts of plastics each year since efforts began in
2007 with the collection of more than 6.6 million pounds. By 2010, the program
collected more than 59 million pounds. Delta’s program not only involves recycling
plastics used in its manufacturing process, but it also includes off-site collection
efforts at more than 2,000 locations where the company picks up used agricultural
plastic items that otherwise would not be recycled.
The L’Oreal, USA, cosmetics manufacturing facility in North
Little Rock for its participation in the United States Department of Energy’s
Home Energy Affordability Loan (HEAL) program, which has resulted in increased
energy efficiency not only at the company’s plant, but at the homes of company
employees as well. The program involves a zero-interest revolving loan fund
to finance industrial energy efficiency improvements, and participating industries
establish an internal loan fund to finance improvements on the private homes
of company employees. L’Oreal anticipates improvements at the plant will result
in an annual savings of 428,000 kilowatt hours, or an estimated reduction of
176 tons of greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, improvements at the homes
of 83 employees are expected to result in an additional annual reduction of
2.23 tons of greenhouse gas emissions.
All five finalists have been invited to attend the April 22 APC&EC
meeting, where they will be recognized for their efforts prior to the announcement
of the ENVY Award winner.
Since 2005 the Department of Environmental Quality has honored companies
and individuals for their continued efforts to protect and enhance the environment
in extraordinary ways. These innovating projects and programs show that even one
company or one person can make a difference in protecting Arkansas.
Previous ENVY winners include:
The Hot Springs/Garland County Beautification Commission
