The Chester County Board of Commissioners and the Chester County Chamber, with the support of the Chester County Solid Waste Authority, recognized the 2006 Green Business Award recipients at this year’s Annual Dinner.

The University of Pennsylvania-New Bolton Center received an award for their distinguished recycling and waste reduction practices.

Located in Kennett Square, New Bolton Center is a non-profit large animal teaching hospital and research facility located on approximately 700 acres with about 70 buildings, half of which are occupied by people.

New Bolton Center was challenged to establish a recycling collection program spread over a large geographic area with an unusual variety of buildings and services, not the typical business park or strip mall. It required the promotion and the necessary education on recycling procedures to the approximately 400 employees and 50 students there at any time.

In the first year they recycled: 8.9 tons of white, mixed office paper, newspaper and magazines; 17.6 tons of cardboard; 4.5 tons of glass bottles and cans; 5.7 tons of wood skids which were made into mulch; 277 toner cartridges; 50 cell phones; 300 pounds of batteries; and 3.9 tons computers, hard drives and printers.

They reduced their trash bill by 33 percent in just one year by reducing their trash volume by 66 percent. Starting with 45 trash containers, they now have just 16. They stopped paying for huge boxes taking up space in dumpsters and stopped paying for the emptying of empty containers.

New Bolton Center is a model for those interested in resource conservation, waste reduction and reducing their waste disposal costs. Businesses who are concerned about “the bottom line” need to understand that even the extraordinary circumstances at the New Bolton Center did not stop them from developing a successful, cost effective program.

11/10/2006