The La Porte County Solid Waste District has been selected by the Curbside Value Partnership (CVP) to receive a total of $30,000 in recycling education grants from the new CVP Connect Education Award Program. The District is one of fifteen community organizations selected by CVP to receive assistance to execute upcoming recycling education plans.
“The Solid Waste District is honored to be recognized for our strong commitment to recycling education,” said Executive Director Clay Turner. “With the support of this grant, we hope to provide good educational tools to other communities and improve usage of our own curbside recycling program, as well.”
Alicia Ebaugh, the District’s education and public outreach coordinator, plans to work with CVP and local marketing specialists to create a “Know Before You Throw” campaign for the District that includes direct mail, short online videos and other advertising. The campaign is meant to update residents on what is and is not recyclable in their curbside recycling bins.
“We’ve had a countywide curbside recycling program in La Porte County for 20 years. The items you can recycle, and even the program itself, have changed a lot in that time,” Ebaugh said. “We know a majority of our residents have come to depend on curbside recycling because it’s convenient and it reduces waste going to landfills. We want to use this grant to help them become even better recyclers.”
CVP Connect’s Education Award Program provides resources to select communities that have been dedicated users of CVP Connect (CVPConnect.org), a free, online education training tool for recycling coordinators that was launched last year to help communities be more strategic and effective in the promotion of their residential recycling programs.
There are two different Curbside Value Partnership grants available through the program:
- Program One: Matching Education Grants – recipients receive $5,000 cash awards to be applied toward public outreach around their curbside recycling program
- Program Two: CVP’s Test Kitchen – recipients receive $25,000 awards ($10,000 of direct grant funding and $15,000 of in-kind services to include creative and communications support by CVP)
The District is one of only four groups to receive both grants.
CVP is a national nonprofit organization formed to help communities grow their residential curbside recycling programs through education and increased attention to data. Since its public debut in 2005, CVP has worked with communities to launch and measure education campaigns tailored to meet their unique needs, amassing a library of best practices along the way. These best practices, and more, are captured within CVP Connect and shared with registered users, who represent curbside recycling programs nationwide.
“The La Porte County Solid Waste District impressed us with their commitment to recycling education and impressive plans for 2013 and beyond,” said Steve Thompson, executive director of CVP. “I look forward to working with them to increase recycling participation and tonnage in their program.”
CVP will track and measure the impact of the education efforts through the Emerge Knowledge Re-TRAC Connect data management tool and promote learnings and best practices to communities across the country via its website (RecycleCurbside.org) and CVP Connect.
Besides countywide curbside recycling, the Solid Waste District provides electronics recycling, a compost site, periodic Household Hazardous Waste, tire and appliance collections, along with education to people of all ages about waste reduction and recycling.
ABOUT THE CURBSIDE VALUE PARTNERSHIP
The Curbside Value Partnership (CVP) is a 501(c)(3) organization designed to grow participation in curbside recycling programs nationwide. It is the only current national program that engages all recycling stakeholders (including government, private industry, haulers and materials recovery facilities) to identify solutions to improving curbside recycling programs through education and data analysis. CVP’s goal is to launch and study education programs to increase participation in local curbside programs, and make programs more profitable and sustainable. To date, 31 communities and four states have been engaged by CVP in education campaigns. The program is currently funded by members of the Aluminum Association (Alcoa, Tri-Arrow Aluminum and Novelis), Can Manufacturers Institute (Ardagh Group, Ball Corporation, BWAY Corporation, Crown Holdings Inc., Metal Container Corporation, Rexam, Silgan Containers Corporation, Sonoco-Phoenix Inc and the Van Can Company) as well as the American Chemistry Council, Grocery Manufacturers Association, International Bottled Water Association and Keep America Beautiful. Other corporate sponsors interested in impacting recycling rates in a meaningful way are always welcome. For more information, visit www.RecycleCurbside.org.