Yellowstone Park Foundation and Bernzomatic team up to tackle sustainable recycling of camping fuel cylinders

“Proper recycling of all camping materials — including the fuel cylinders used each season – has always been a focus in Yellowstone; however, the park’s original infrastructure could not keep up with the number of cylinders used,” said Karen Kress, president of Yellowstone Park Foundation. “We are grateful for Bernzomatic’s partnership in uncovering a long-term cylinder recycling solution that also makes the process simpler for park visitors.”

As part of the program, Bernzomatic invested significant resources to overhaul Yellowstone’s existing propane cylinder reclaim vehicle. The company’s engineering, product development, safety and regulatory teams collaborated to create this first-of-its-kind design with enhanced safety features. The new vehicle now removes residual propane from discarded fuel cylinders and processes them for recycling 20 times faster than the original vehicle.

“We are proud to partner with Yellowstone Park Foundation on a sustainability initiative that not only educates park visitors on safe cylinder disposal, but also enhances the beauty of this iconic national park,” said Mike Verne, general manager of consumer products for Worthington Industries, parent company to Bernzomatic, a handheld torch and fuel cylinder company. “This partnership is a natural extension of our Bernzomatic CylinderSafe(TM) program, the first and only public education program on non-refillable fuel cylinder safety. Through this initiative with Yellowstone, we want to make it as simple as possible for park visitors to access important cylinder safety and disposal information and reduce waste in the parks.”

To make the recycling process simpler, Yellowstone and Bernzomatic are also renovating the park’s propane recycling bin infrastructure by making the bins more easily identifiable, distinguishable and uniform in color. The recycling bins will have updated signage that clearly communicates the type of cylinders that are acceptable to discard in the bins. The organizations are also working to educate park visitors about cylinder recycling by sharing program information on their websites and social channels and across park lodges, visitor centers and local convenience stores.

Park officials will be showing off the recycling vehicle at a special event scheduled Saturday, June 4, at the parking lot between the Old Faithful Visitor Education Center and the Old Faithful Lodge. Yellowstone Superintendent Dan Wenk will deliver a few remarks, along with YPF president Karen Kress and a representative from Bernzomatic. The event will take place between 11:15 a.m. and 12 p.m.

(SOURCE: Sean Reichard, editor of Yellowstone Insider)