The Solid Waste Agency of Lake County has honored six area businesses and organizations for helping reduce the amount of garbage that goes into landfills.
Since 1996, the SWALCO 4R Award program has recognized businesses, service groups, schools and other organizations that have outstanding waste reduction, reuse, recycling or recovery programs.
Winners of this year’s 4R awards are: Abbott Laboratories, Abbott Park; Alltech Associates, Deerfield; Centex Homes, Schaumburg; Great Lakes Naval Training Center, North Chicago; Lake County Forest Preserve, Libertyville; and Tetra Pak Inc., Vernon Hills.
“Not only does the 4R Awards Program serve as a high-visibility way of saying thank you to our neighbors who are making the extra effort, but [it] also establishes the award winners as role models to others in the community,” said SWALCO spokeswoman Monica Duebbert.
Alltech Associates of Deerfield was honored for a program to donate $1 for each reply received from customers regarding duplicate mailings, address changes or removal from the mailing list. Alltech formed the effort with the National Arbor Day’s Rain Forest Rescue and Plant A Tree Programs.
Alltech’s efforts, SWALCO said, have resulted in the planting of 429 hardwood trees and 623 conifers in national parks damaged by wildfires, along with the donation of more than $10,000 for the purchase of rain forest acreage in Latin America.
Tetra Pak’s consideration of the environment while planning and building its new Vernon Hills headquarters won high praise from SWALCO. But its award focused on the company’s decision to reuse work stations, chairs and file cabinets from its former Chicago office, keeping the materials from going to a landfill.
Centex Homes earned its 4R award for recycling more than 80 percent of the construction debris generated at four new-home developments in Lake County. Abbott Laboratories and Great Lakes Naval Training Center were honored for recycling programs aimed at employees.
The Lake County Forest Preserve was honored under the “reuse” category. The furnace in its machine shop burns used motor oil recovered from forest preserve vehicles. Ponds are used to water all forest preserve golf courses, except Ft. Sheridan. Also, wood chips used on paths and playgrounds come from the forest preserve’s maintenance efforts.
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