What Happened?
Municipalities offer a variety of recycling programs to local residents and businesses. Many officials are experimenting with new services and incentives to drive participation and efficiency.
Tullahoma
The city of Tullahoma, Tennessee, is planning to increase participation in its recycling program with the assistance of a grant from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. Tullahoma will use the $12,750 state grant to purchase additional recycling equipment in an effort to reduce landfill costs. Tullahoma will contribute $8,500 toward the project, Tullahoma News reported.
Tullahoma is one of several cities and counties across Tennessee receiving grants from the Department of Environment and Conservation as part of a statewide effort to divert waste from landfills and recycle more materials in local communities.
In Tullahoma, specifically, the grant will help buy a baler for aluminum cans and recycling bins for cardboard. The aluminum can baler will replace the current machine that is over a decade old and make the recycling process much more efficient, Tullahoma News reported.
Lawrence
A recent study from Lawrence City Hall in Kansas revealed more than 400 tons of recycled materials are being collected throughout the city per month, up significantly after the city launched a new curbside recycling program to increase participation. The city has started to collect more materials than in the past and have provided residents with new containers to accommodate the program, Lawrence Journal-World reported.
Lawrence also offers several drop-off locations for businesses and residents to leave newspapers, mixed paper, office paper, cardboard and glass for recycling. Since launching the program last October, Lawrence has collected $175,000 by selling materials left at the drop-off locations. The city is now considering implementing a curbside recycling program for businesses to further reduce landfill costs, Lawrence Journal-World reported.
Recycling Partnership
The city of Columbia, South Carolina, will receive a $300,000 grant from Recycling Partnership to modernize its recycling program. Several large corporations make up the Recycling Partnership, a collaborative effort to boost residential recycling nationwide. This is the first grant awarded from the organization as it launches a program in Columbia.
The $300,000 grant will help Columbia convert from a bin-based recycling program to one that uses carts. All 34,000 households in the community will receive a 96-gallon cart to spur participation. The city will also enjoy technical assistance and recycling education and outreach through the grant program.
The Recycling Partnership works with Curbside Value Partnership to funnel private sector and nonprofit funding into large public investments in community recycling programs. The collaboration also offers municipalities with technical assistance to develop and deploy more efficient recycling solutions.
College Park
College Park, Maryland, may see a change to the city code after councilmembers realized recycling was not mandatory. The city council wants the city code to expand the language to apply to all recyclable materials not just used newspapers as it is written currently, Diamond Back Online reported.
By implementing an updated law requiring residents and businesses, in particular, to take advantage of city waste collection services and recycle all materials, College Park aims to become a more sustainable community and contribute toward to reducing waste sent to landfills.
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