Wisconsin community receives grant from The Recycling Partnership

By Paul Ploumis (ScrapMonster Author)

September 09, 2016 11:43:29 PM

BRISTOL (Scrap Monster):  The Recycling Partnership, Falls Church, Virginia, has awarded a grant to Outagamie County, Wisconsin. The county’s rural communities are among the latest to move to single-stream curbside recycling carts, and the grant from The Recycling Partnership is helping them to purchase more than 6,900 carts, which will be distributed to households across 13 local communities. A portion of the grant funding will go toward education and outreach.

“It’s really exciting to bring carts to this rural pocket of the country,” says Cody Marshall, technical assistance lead with The Recycling Partnership. “The economies of scale for cart-based recycling continue to prove out, even at these lower population levels. It’s also notable that 13 communities came together to leverage their cart buying power—that’s a best practice that can clearly be used to great effect.”

Carts are scheduled for distribution starting in early November. Their arrival will be announced by a host of promotional materials and a high-profile press event. Outagamie County is introducing the carts on the heels of another programmatic improvement—adding new materials to its “Yes” list. Residents are now able to include cartons and all plastic bottles and containers with their cans and paper collected for recycling.

“Communities in Outagamie County take tremendous pride in bringing residents dependable, convenient service,” says Christine Miller, recycling coordinator with Outagamie County Recycling and Solid Waste. “Carts are easier to handle than bins, and accepting more materials makes the choice to recycle that much simpler. We expect this double-whammy will result in heightened participation and more volume—the brass ring of modern recycling.”

Since the start of 2015, The Recycling Partnership says it has helped catalyze $21 million of new recycling infrastructure that positively impacts more than 2 million households. Over the coming months, The Recycling Partnership says it expects to complete placement of more than 300,000 additional carts. The national group also is working to fight contamination in the residential recycling stream, building, testing and sharing its quality-improvement model through on-the-ground programs and free online open source tools and resources.

“Outagamie County is a shining example of how to not settle for status quo, and we’re exceedingly proud to partner with them,” Marshall says. “They are seizing opportunities to add depth and breadth, taking the changes two at a time.” He adds, “Think of what our industry could accomplish if every program followed that lead.”

Courtesy: www.recyclintoday.com