Turtle Plastics has awarded Kovatch Mobile Equipment Corp the first of its new annual award for Recycling Champion of the Year.

KME, the nation's largest privately-owned manufacturer of custom fire apparatus and speciality mobile equipment, has long had an aggressive recycling program aimed at reducing the amount and cost of landfill waste from its plants, while ensuring that the strategy is efficient, unobtrusive, and cost effective.Over the past two years, KME has been collecting for recycling the leftover material and cuttings that resulted from KME's customized installations of plastic matting material in the compartments of KME Fire Apparatus.KME recently returned nine huge pallets of this plastic scrap material to Turtle Plastics. The scrap included material from both Turtle Plastics and a competitor who also manufacturers compartment matting.Instead of disposing of this leftover material in a landfill, it will quickly be reprocessed by Turtle Plastics into brand new compartmentmatting for installation by KME and other fire truck manufacturers.Turtle Plastics president, Tom Norton, said, "Ironically, though a portion of the returned scrap material is actually from one of Turtle Plastics' competitors, we will gladly accept it and still make it work."Founded in 1980, Turtle Plastics is a recycling company that makes a modular matting and cribbing products for the Fire and Rescue Industry, building entrances, industrial plants, and sports venues.Accepting the award for KME was Nate Schock, Environmental Manager. In thanking Turtle Plastics for the award, Schock pointed out that KME has long had an aggressive recycling strategy and is committed to exploring every feasible recycling option within its production facilities. "When we can reduce the amount of waste that ends up in a landfill, and save money at the same time, everybody wins. It is great that Turtle Plastics has been in the forefront of this kind of recycling for more than 30 years."