Employee’s environmental awareness inspires recycling program at Colstrip

Filling 10 industrial-size trash bins every week with cardboard waste at the Colstrip power plant really bugged Wayne Burke, so he set out to do something about it.

“We have a paper recycling program here that helps provide jobs for people with disabilities, but it doesn’t cover (or handle) cardboard,” said Burke, who works in the warehouse at Colstrip.

“With all of our cardboard going into the trash, well, that was kind of a pet peeve with me as far as recycling goes,” he said. “I just thought we could do something for the environment.”

The most important thing he needed was a bailer to compress the cardboard.

“I got a hold of some vendors to see what they could do,” Burke said. “It looked like $10,000 to get a bailer.”

He eventually contacted representatives from the plant’s recycling company, Golden Steel & Recycling Inc. of Billings. The company agreed to supply a cardboard bailer and training on how to use it free of charge as part of its contract with Colstrip. Golden Steel & Recycling is also helping the plant locate a used second bailer.

“That was great news,” Burke said. “We can bail it and store the cardboard outside for pickup. This was a good environmental thing to do. All nine of us in warehouse feel pretty good about this.”

About 120 miles east of Billings, the Colstrip plant, operated by PPL Montana, has four coal-fired generating units. The plant is a “Star” site under the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Voluntary Protection Program.