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News | Oct. 7, 2021

Advance coordination smooths regional DODEA furniture swaps

By Jake Joy DLA Disposition Services

The Department of Defense Education Activity got a big assist from Defense Logistics Agency Disposition Services this summer as schools in Europe and Asia conducted furniture, fixture and equipment disposal projects in preparation for the 2021/22 school year.

In Rota, Spain, the agency’s disposal team helped DODEA officials get rid of 10 truckloads of unwanted items like desks, chairs, computer tables and shelving units originally worth $260,000.

A worker disassembles wood tables with metal legs.
A DLA Disposition Services scrap contract worker disassembles school tables in Japan. The metal will be sold and proceeds help hold down the Defense Department’s property disposal costs.
A worker disassembles wood tables with metal legs.
210621-D-D0441-4321
A DLA Disposition Services scrap contract worker disassembles school tables in Japan. The metal will be sold and proceeds help hold down the Defense Department’s property disposal costs.
Photo By: DLA photo
VIRIN: 210621-D-D0441-4321

According to Rota Site Lead Brienne Halifax, solid pre-coordination with Humanitarian Assistance Program colleagues at the Defense Security Cooperation Agency resulted in the donation of nearly 400 items worth $230,000. Donations to HAP help limit disposal costs, reducing DLA’s service-level billing and providing a steady form of U.S. soft diplomacy.

In Japan, school disposal support projects took place at Camp Zama, Naval Air Station Misawa, Naval Station Sasebo, Yokota Air Force Base, and Naval Station Yokosuka, according to DLA Disposition Services Sagami Operations Branch Chief Mc Keisha Inness. A large portion of the disposal consisted of student desks and chairs and included additional lots like 2,000 obsolete desktop and laptop computers.

Innis said DODEA’s regional logistics chief reached out to DLA all the way back in October 2020 to begin planning 2021’s major furniture replacement projects, and that early coordination paid off for everyone involved. 

“He wanted to discuss ways he could streamline the disposal process,” Inness said. “It was great that DODEA contacted us way in advance – almost nine months before the scheduled turn in. This allowed the site ample time to prepare for the volume of turn ins and also manage our workforce.”

Inness said the team made site visits to all the schools to ensure they selected teacher training or early dismissal days so students would not be in the classrooms, actually using the furniture. They decided to conduct a disposal as “Receipt-in-Place” and coordinated with the schools to create laydown areas for the property, dumpsters for scrap and room for contractor material handling equipment.

Ultimately, usable furniture passed through the reuse screening cycle, with hundreds of thousands of pounds of scrap was generated – much of which produced revenue through scrap metal sales and helped avoid additional disposal costs.