KY DEP Environmental Excellence Awards
The Kentucky Department for Environmental Protection’s (DEP) mission is to protect and enhance Kentucky’s environment. As part of this mission, each year DEP recognizes and encourages environmental excellence in the Commonwealth through DEP’s Environmental Excellence Awards. Swift & Staley Team has received the KY EXCEL Champion Award for 2020. This award is given to the KY EXCEL member that demonstrates outstanding stewardship and achieves positive benefits for Kentucky’s environment. SST received the award for community outreach projects undertaken in 2019—the ABC Partnership Program Plastic Caps & Lids Recycling Projects, Cigarette Recycling with Paducah, and participation in the Land Between the Lakes Shoreline Cleanup.
A special thanks to our environmental program champions— Mike Golightly and Christa Armstrong— for their leadership of these activities. And thank you to
all SST employees who participated in these activities.
Way to go SST!!
Paducah Site Contractors are Repeat Winners of Governor’s Safety Awards
PADUCAH, Ky. – Two prime contractors at EM’s Paducah Site were recently recognized by Kentucky’s governor for excellence in health and safety performance for the past year.
Representatives of Swift & Staley, Inc. (SSI), responsible for site infrastructure support services; and Mid-America Conversion Services (MCS), operator of EM’s depleted uranium hexafluoride conversion (DUF6) facilities, received the awards from Gov. Matt Bevin at a ceremony in Louisville, Kentucky.
The Governor’s Safety and Health Award is the Kentucky Labor Cabinet’s way of recognizing companies for outstanding safety and health performance, and it encourages development of programs to reduce and eliminate occupational injuries and illnesses. Employers and their employees who have achieved a required number of work hours without lost-time injury or illness are eligible.
MCS received the award for the third consecutive year, having achieved more than 1.6 million hours without a lost-time injury from July 2015 through December 2018, while SSI workers achieved over 1.2 million injury-free hours during the same period. This is SSI’s eighth governor’s award.
“DOE recognizes how valuable our workers are to completing the cleanup mission at the Paducah Site. Maintaining the safety and health of the workforce is a daily challenge that our contractors embrace,” EM Paducah Site Lead Jennifer Woodard said. “We are proud of our contractors for being recognized by the Commonwealth of Kentucky for their commitment to safety through these annual awards.”
During the award ceremony, Bevin noted there are more than 70,000 employers in Kentucky, and approximately 38 had been approved for the award during 2018.
From left, Swift & Staley, Inc. (SSI) Environment Safety & Health Manager John Hobbs; Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin; SSI Laborer Charmain Shannon; and SSI USW Safety Representative Jason Gilbert.
SSI Environment, Safety and Health Manager John Hobbs said the award is evidence of his company’s longstanding commitment to working safely, and its safety culture that fosters hazard recognition and reporting.
“The work environment is dynamic and unpredictable, but through effective leadership, training, and employee involvement, Swift and Staley team employees are successfully accomplishing the mission without serious injury,” Hobbs said.
SSI and its major subcontractors provide roads and grounds maintenance, janitorial services, safeguards and security, information technology and cyber security, radiological monitoring services, records management and document control, facilities maintenance, property management, and training at the Paducah Site.
The Paducah Site is situated on 3,556 acres in western Kentucky. Built as part of the nation’s nuclear weapons complex, the gaseous diffusion plant enriched uranium from 1952 to 2013, originally for military reactors and nuclear weapons, and later for commercial nuclear power fuel.
-Contributors: Kearney Ackermann, John Hobbs
2019 Land Between the Lakes Shoreline Cleanup
On September 9, 2019, SSI employees volunteered to participate in the fall Shoreline Cleanup sponsored by the Friends of Land Between the Lakes (LBL). The goal of the half-day event was to pick up as much trash as possible from LBL shorelines and visitor areas. SSI was assigned the Scenic Overlook Drive, a popular one-way drive overlooking Kentucky Lake, providing visitors with views of Kentucky Dam and the Kentucky Lake shoreline. Read More… (PDF)
SST Supports Recyclings and Involves Youngsters Through the ABC Program
Swift & Staley is actively working to improve the Environmental Management System (EMS) through working with the community on recycling projects.
With assistance from the Infrastructure Support Services Contract (ISSC) team, Swift & Staley is sponsoring kids in the Greentree Plastics ABC Promise Partnership Program, a program designed by kids for kids to educate and involve them in recycling.
The first product of this effort is shown above with some of the 4Rivers 4-H Homeschool Club who did the work. They collected, sorted, and cleaned about 250 pounds of plastic caps and lids to create this picnic table. The kids selected the Easter Seals Senior Center as the location for the table. It currently resides in the Youth Center awaiting completion of the Senior Center.
The Morgan Elementary Tornado Force Community Service Club processed enough caps to make two benches – an 8 foot and a 4 foot – that were placed in front of the school in June. This group plans to continue the program this fall. Principal Dr. Mark Fenske enthusiastically supports the ABC program.
Local Contracting Company Helps Community Combat Cigarette Waste
Swift & Staley Inc. and the City of Paducah Recycle Traditionally-Unrecyclable Cigarettes with TerraCycle’s Cigarette Waste Recycling Program
PADUCAH, Kentucky. – Every year, billions of cigarette butts end up in dumpsters and landfills, or get tossed on shorelines, parks, and sidewalks as litter. Contracting company Swift & Staley Inc. has teamed up with international recycling leader TerraCycle® to make it convenient for the citizens of Paducah to recycle their cigarette waste.
“This program helps maintain our city’s beauty by reducing the litter on our streets and sidewalks caused by cigarette butts,” says Swift & Staley Inc. Vice President, Tammy Courtney. “By recycling this waste we are able to take something unsightly off our streets, improve the environment, and recycle the waste to make viable products.”
In partnership with the City of Paducah and the Facility Maintenance crew, cigarette recycling receptacles were installed at 6 public locations around town including City Hall, near the Market House Theater downtown, the City IT Building, the City Recreation Center, the Robert Cherry Civic Center, and the Parks Building. These sturdy receptacles are designed for easy installation and cigarette waste collection in high-traffic areas.
Swift & Staley Inc. will maintain the collection boxes and ship cigarettes to TerraCycle for recycling. When processed, the paper and tobacco will be separated from the cigarette filters and composted. The filters then will undergo pelletization and be molded into a variety of new products such as park benches, bike racks, shipping pallets and recycling bins.