Awards recognize Thompson recycling efforts, litter pickups

Thompson Engineering is receiving praise for its work to make Mobile, AL a cleaner community.

Thompson was recognized Nov. 8 at the 2017 Alabama PALS (People Against A Littered State) Governor’s Awards. Thompson was awarded the “Coastal Cleanup Award” for introducing and facilitating a rigid plastic recycling program at the 2017 Alabama Coastal Cleanup. Working with Alabama Coastal Cleanup organizers and the Weeks Bay Foundation, Thompson employees provided program education and visited every cleanup zone of the Alabama Coastal Cleanup on September 16, 2017 to help launch the program. In total, 2,000 pounds of rigid plastics (seen in photo) were collected and will be reused to create shampoo bottles for Proctor and Gamble. Program partner, Yael Girard, executive director of the Weeks Bay Foundation, received the Governor’s “Vulcan Volunteer of the Year Award” for the time and effort she put into the program.

In a Nov. 7 awards presentation by the Dauphin Island Sea Lab Foundation, Thompson Engineering Division Leader Don Bates was awarded the Gulf Coast Marine Environmental Excellence Award. Bates spearheads a volunteer litter clean-up crew made up of Thompson employees. About once a month, the group participates in shoreline and water-based cleanups in and around the Mobile area.