Cheyenne Mountain Waste Management
Tetra Tech provided an economic analysis of Cheyenne Mountain’s waste management and recycling program.
Cheyenne Mountain is one of the most unique military installations in the world—a 4.5-acre grid of chambers and tunnels excavated from nearly 700,000 tons of solid rock, in which 15 buildings are sealed behind 25-ton steel blast doors and surrounded by 2,000 feet of solid, Rocky Mountain granite. Each product and resource brought into this enclosed facility must be properly managed throughout its life cycle, presenting a complex set of waste management challenges.
The U.S. Air Force has established a goal of diverting 40 percent of the solid waste it generates at the mountain through waste management and recycling programs. Tetra Tech’s economic analysis of the mountain’s waste management and recycling program includes evaluating alternative operating scenarios to reduce operating costs by selling its recyclable commodities such as scrap metal, high-grade paper, cardboard, and aluminum.
Many of our U.S. Air Force recycling and reuse programs pose unique challenges ranging from on-site materials recovery at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station; to recycling at remote locations such as the interior of Alaska and Thule Air Base, Greenland; to waste management within the confines of the mountain.
Building on several years of experience working with Headquarters Air Education and Training Command, Tetra Tech has evaluated recycling, composting, reuse, and disposal programs at 14 U.S. Air Force Space Command installations worldwide. This has helped them reduce costs and minimize their environmental footprints in their communities.