MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJUENE, N.C. -- Beginning Jan. 18, units aboard the Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune will be able to visit the new Hazardous Material Re-Issue Facility, co-located with Serv-Mart in Building 1606, to pick up various paints, adhesives and batteries that they would otherwise have to purchase.
“If we have what (units) need, we issue the material for free, saving the unit money and reducing the cost of disposal,” said William Clark, an environmental protection assistant with Resource Conservation and Recovery Section, Environmental Management Division aboard the base.
Clark added that RCRS personnel receive all the chemicals used from every unit; anything with a hazardous, toxic or flammable classification and they go through the items looking for any products that are still useable or serviceable. Rather than spending the extra funds to have the items processed and disposed of, they re-issue it out back to units.
“We hope that before the units go (to Serv-Mart) to buy more of this product, they just stop by and see if we have what they are looking for,” said Clark. “If we do, we’ll give it to them and it helps the base save on a number of levels.”
Clark said that the availability of specific items depends entirely on what the units turn in and that only Department of Defense personnel may receive items from the re-issue facility for on base uses.
“It’s a great program,” said Clark. “It’s part of our ‘P2’ program: pollution prevention and it’s about saving money and being stewards of the environment. We’re trying to keep this stuff out of landfills and places where it can leak down into our drinking water - we want to minimize that as much as possible.”