After his retirement from Brevard Community College, Ostroff began a career as Macon County’s Recycling Coordinator. In the five years he has served in this position the paper recycling rate has increased by approximately 35 percent. He has enrolled the five largest schools in the county in a paper recycling program, and plans to incorporate the remaining schools in 2006.

Working with local volunteer agencies and the Job Corps, he annually holds an educational fair and a poster contest to emphasize the importance of paper recycling.

In 1990, with the assistance of a part-time instructor, Ostroff organized and established the Terraphile Society at Brevard Community College. The student-based environmental organization was so successful that by 1993 the College was recycling 10,000 pounds of newspapers and nearly 5,000 pounds of office paper each month.

The American Forest and Paper Association Recycling Awards were created to recognize outstanding individual, business, community and school paper recycling efforts. In 2005, a record-high 51.5 percent of the paper consumed in the U.S. was recovered for recycling.