Water Bottler Donates $120K in Recycling Grants
With the convenience of bottled water ever more appealing as the temperature rises, recycling is a growing concern as well. To help people get plugged into bottle recycling in their communities, Nestle Waters North America (NWNA) and Keep America Beautiful (KAB) have teamed up to help local communities improve recycling where it was once inadequate or inconvenient.
Recycled plastic bottles can be made into products such as clothing, carpeting, detergent bottles and lumber for outdoor decking. Photo: Bloomberg.com
According to industry experts, less than 24 percent of plastic beverage bottles were recycled in 2007.
To encourage and empower local communities to make away-from-home recycling more convenient, Nestle Waters North America today announced it has teamed up with Keep America Beautiful to provide $10,000 “Recycle On The Go” grants to 12 Keep America Beautiful affiliates.
According to a press release, more than 55 affiliates applied for the grants. The grants required applicants to propose “creative, comprehensive and sustainable concepts for public venue recycling of plastic beverage bottles.”
Each affiliate looked to take on public recycling in an innovative way, looking at concepts such as education, how the recycling will actually work and who will support it.
Among the 12 winners include:
- Keep Blackstone Valley Beautiful (Rhode Island): Currently, there is no recycling at the area’s two major sporting complexes for football, soccer, track and other community programs. The grant money will be used to purchase 20 recycling bins, create bilingual signage and work with area community groups to educate about recycling. In addition, the affiliate will collaborate with the Central Falls Public Works Department to measure collected items, helping the organization to track progress against its goal of a 35 percent recycling rate.
- Keep Council Bluffs Beautiful (Iowa): The Council Bluffs affiliate to introduce recycling to the Council Bluffs Recreation Complex, an 8,000 seat arena and convention center used for sports games, concerts, trade shows, banquets and other events, and visited by more than 300,000 people each year. For the first time, recycling containers will be placed next to every trash bin in the facility.
- Keep Santa Fe Beautiful (New Mexico): This affiliate will use the grant to purchase recycling bins for all 10 public parks in Santa Fe, which are used for sporting events, festivals and recreation. The grant will also supplement the agency’s ongoing community recycling education efforts, which include speaking engagements at area schools and community posters and e-flyers.
“One community at a time, one container at a time, we will work with great organizations like Keep America Beautiful to make recycling easier for people,” says NWNA CEO Kim Jeffery.
NWNA has committed to working with others to more than double current plastic beverage bottle recycling rates to 60 percent by 2018. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Americans recycled 82 million tons of municipal solid waste in 2006, reducing carbon emissions by the equivalent of removing more than 39 million cars from the road.
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Water Bottler Donates $120K in Recycling Grants at Nature’s News
posted on June 12th, 2009 at 3:16 am
[...] via Earth 911 [...]
kristine
posted on June 16th, 2009 at 9:22 am
Hi! when will they be doing grant fund like this, and where can i apply?
Jennifer Berry
posted on June 16th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
Hi Kristine,
The program is already over for this year. But if you contact your local Keep America Beautiful affiliate, you can check with them to find out if other grants are available!
Princess Ezeuzoh-Ngwu
posted on June 18th, 2009 at 5:57 am
Jennifer, Do they have such grants for non-governmental orgs., in developing countries. pls. give me the link.thanks
Rose
posted on June 18th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
I belong to a gold’s gym in Exton, Pa. They do not recycle there. I see tons of plastic drink bottles in the trash everyday. It makes me crazy.When I asked the people there they told me it was too much trouble! We have recycling in Exton for residents so I take mine home. How can I get them to start recycling??
Valerie
posted on June 22nd, 2009 at 8:05 am
It is difficult to get people on board with recycling. For some, it’s “too much hassle” or they don’t want the responsibility of the recycling program. Some of the grants that Keep America Beautiful affiliates receive are only awarded affiliates of KAB. Not all affiliates though are the same. They offer different programs based upon the community. Our affiliate in Southern Illinois does not need a curbside recycling program due to the city’s program.
Joseph
posted on July 5th, 2009 at 9:55 am
Hi Jenifer,
Do you know of any grants that may be available for the recycling of waste tires, I am interested in Federal or State of New Jersey Grants.
Thanks,
Pam
posted on October 5th, 2009 at 3:21 am
Hi,
I’m looking for money to educate my community about the importance of regular (residential) recycling. While all the rage is about wind and solar technology, I see little effort being directed to communities such as mine where the practice of placing a loaded recycling bin at the curbside has yet to take hold.
It’d be great to hear from someone who can advise on where to get grant money for this.
Thank you, in advance.