Green Team honored as environmental heroes

Havre Daily News/John Kelleher

Ashley, a member of the Green Team at the Center for Mental Health, helps carry cardboard items to the recycle bin during Havre Pride Saturday at the recycling station at 1st Street and 5th Avenue. The Green Team was named an Environmental Hero by Recycle Hi-Line.

When the Green Team was founded in 2011, it was so named because they had a belief that someday they would be part of a recycling effort.

The team, clients of the Center for Mental Health in downtown Havre, went to work on snow removal projects and landscaping efforts.

Now they have partnered with Recycle Hi-Line, a group that coordinates recycling efforts in the area, and their dream has come true.

They collect paper, cardboard, cans and used newspapers in order to keep these materials out of the landfill.

They come to the Havre Daily News every week and haul off thousands of pounds of newspaper.

They have done such a good job that they were one of four winners in the annual Environmental Heroes Award that were presented at last week's Havre City Council meeting.

Others winning the awards were:

• Tom Tucker, a longtime director of Recycle Hi-Line, who will soon be leaving the area.

Tucker became a board member just after Recycle Hi-Line started and helped organizations — such as Sweet Home in Chinook and the Hill County Courthouse — create their own in-house recycling programs, said Candi Zion, Recycle Hi-Line chair.

He also designed a cardboard recycling container that is used by the Havre Day Activity Center.

He and his wife, Dr. Rebecca King, will soon be leaving the area.

"His passion for recycling will be missed," Zion said.

• Havre Walmart, which has expanded its plastic recycling efforts. Walmart employees volunteer for the monthly recycling drives at 1st Street and 5th Avenue.

Zion said Cliff Powers had just been named manager of the Havre store when he, his daughter and Walmart employees were sorting plastics at the monthly recycle.

• Pacific Steel and Recycling, an employee-owned company that has accepted all metal, including tin and aluminum, batteries, paper and cardboard for several years.

Pacific has now added e-waste to the list of recyclable materials.

The Environmental Heroes help Recycle Hi-Line live up to its commitment to clean up the environment and make the landfill last longer.