Waste Management Think Green Community Improvement Grants
Fifteen Keep America Beautiful affiliates shared $150,000 in cash grants in 2008 as part of the Waste Management “Think Green” Community Improvement Grants from the Waste Management Charitable Foundation and Waste Management, Inc. In its third year, Waste Management’s Think Green Grants were given to communities that proposed their grants be used for original improvement projects to be enacted in their cities and towns. Here's a summary of the various grant programs. Keep Phoenix Beautiful Waste Management Community Improvement Grant was used for two programs by Keep Phoenix Beautiful (KPB) – the successful launch of www.phoenixrecycles.org, which includes recycling information pertinent to Phoenix residents, and the development of KPB’s first-ever Earth Day Phoenix event at Cesar Chavez Plaza, directly across from Phoenix City Hall in downtown Phoenix. With Waste Management as the title sponsor, KPB was able to produce an Earth Day event of significant magnitude, which helped garner many other sponsors and financial partners. The Earth Day event featured 60 exhibitors – city, county and state government agencies, USGBC, utilities, associations, and numerous businesses both large and small – promoting their sustainability messages to the Phoenix community. Another component of the event was the Keep Phoenix Beautiful Awards. The phoenixrecycles.org Web site was a welcome addition to KPB’s overall Web presence, helping it to promote local recycling information. Working with Earth911, the site allows visitors to locate recycling centers in the region. Keep California Beautiful One of the most unique proposals for a Think Green Grant came from Keep California Beautiful (KCB), which recognized the need and potential for a waste reduction and recycling plan for special events in California and, in particular, the annual Carlsbad Marathon. Based on the event’s previous campaign, “Only Your Feet Hit the Ground,” KCB developed a larger and more integrated strategy to combine litter clean up and recycling with an educational message for its Waste Management Think Green Grant. Not only did KCB encourage greater participation in the event, but KCB also worked to increase the amount of recycling receptacles on site. Keep California Beautiful worked with In Motion, Inc., the organizer of the marathon, to implement a multi-faceted plan that enlisted the cooperation of participants, volunteers and spectators to go the “extra mile” to help keep the Carlsbad Marathon and Half Marathon litter-free. Keep California Beautiful created a sustainable solution, which future events – not only the Carlsbad Marathon – can now be modeled after. The Waste Management Green Squad also participated in the event through participation at the outreach booth and assisting on the final evaluation of the course to help get the roads open cleaner and ahead of schedule. Keep Brevard Beautiful Keep Brevard Beautiful and the Comprehensive Beach Cleanup Program provide a vehicle for caring citizens to take action on behalf of the county. Volunteers come from all sectors of the community – business, school groups, civic organizations and individuals – to clean and improve the shorelines. In one year’s time, there were 1,600 cleanups with more than 8,300 volunteers donating nearly 25,000 hours of their time. With Waste Management’s help in removing debris, the volunteers collected nearly 30,000 bags totaling nearly 600,000 pounds of debris. Keep Winter Park Beautiful Thanks to the Think Green Grant, Keep Winter Park Beautiful (KWPB) was able to implement four distinct programs. Its Phonebook Recycling Program recovered 550 pounds of phone books at drop boxes at fire stations and police departments across the city. Moreover, it was able to gather an additional 150 pounds from local businesses. The KAB affiliate also introduced recycling education sessions at public middle and high schools in the area. Overall, 300 students were provided information and lessons about reducing, reusing and recycling. In addition, KWPB had educational booths at different city events with information about recycling and green products, as well as distributing reusable shopping bags. Two tree planting events were conducted with volunteers from the Rotary Club and the Winter Park High School Eco-Club planting 20 five-gallon trees in a park. At a second event, more than 100 school children helped plant 10 additional trees. Finally, KWPB organized the Lake Island Playground Restoration project. Thirty professionals from Adventist Health Care Systems volunteered to clean up and beautify a popular kid’s park. Keep Cobb Beautiful Keep Cobb Beautiful (KCB) partnered with the Quality of Life Unit (QOL) of Cobb County to reduce illegal dumping, litter and graffiti through community outreach education programs as well as community cleanups. The responsibility of the QOL is to reduce crime one neighborhood at a time through education, enforcement and eradication. QOL combats illegal behavior through public education, enforces Cobb County and Georgia state laws and ordinances on litter, illegal dumping and graffiti, and eradicates devastated areas with community cleanups. KCB met with QOL to determine what type of equipment was needed to effectively present their education and awareness programs to the community. Officers use digital cameras purchased through the Think Green Grant to document illegal dump sites. The QOL unit has helped to restore pride in communities, brought police and people together in true “community policing” and has reduced crime. Keep Indianapolis Beautiful Thanks to the support from the Think Green Grant, Keep Indianapolis Beautiful (KIB) got off to a good start for its Cottage Home Neighborhood Association’s vision for its neighborhood greenspace. This project involved renovating and improving a neighborhood greenspace that sits on five lots in the center of the Cottage Home neighborhood, creating a picnic shelter, vegetable garden, gathering space, a rain garden, a wildflower garden to support a bee hive, and pathways leading people from the street to the park center. Interestingly, the vast majority of materials collected for construction of the shelter have been free, salvaged materials, such as fabric roofing material from the old RCA Dome. But KIB is still awaiting some permits to continue with the construction project. In the meantime, KIB is working on two projects that involve the creation of structures made of recycled materials. The first of the two projects is the Westside Pride Park Playground, which is an IPL Project Greenspace project. KIB has agreed to build two shade shelters attached to the sides of the playground, and to plant trees and perennials around the exterior of the playground. The other use of the grant monies will be used at the Arboretum at the Oaks Academy, a local K-8 school in Indianapolis. At the academy, KIB will build a bridge made of recycled materials across a bio-swale, connecting two mounds planted with native trees. This is part of a multi-year master plan for this K-8 school’s grounds that includes significant unstructured play areas, which provide the teachers with educational opportunities, while using only local, native plantings. Keep Dodge City Beautiful The Dodge City Graffiti Task Force was organized by Keep Dodge City Beautiful (KDCB) in the summer of 2008. It was convened in response to the yearly growth of the graffiti abatement services by KDCB and CREW Recycling staff members. The Task Force’s goals and mission have been to develop a four-pronged component approach to the elimination of graffiti. The four components are: education, enforcement, eradication and prevention. The program was developed to offer a comprehensive and long-term approach on education and social change within Dodge City and for its residents. The Think Green Community Improvement Grant funds were used for the education and prevention components of the plan. The funds provided for a series of educational activities targeting the residents of Dodge City to prevent litter and graffiti. The first phase was named “The Great Dodge City Graffiti Brush-Off” campaign, which consisted of 1) a series of ads to educate the community about the importance of reporting graffiti and its eradication within 48 hours; 2) a series of graffiti prevention and removal projects targeting high graffiti areas of Dodge City; and 3) use of educational curriculum targeting middle school children within the Dodge City School District. The second part of the campaign was a series of graffiti prevention and removal projects, consisting of community murals in high graffiti areas. The final part of the campaign was to provide youth education about the effects of graffiti on the community. The second phase of the program was called “Take it to the Community.” This phase consisted of taking the education directly to residents with booths at community events and the development of a Neighborhood Watch program with a featured All Night Out event in conjunction with the Dodge City Police Force. Keep Tularosa Beautiful Keep Tularosa Beautiful’s Think Green Grant project commenced at the James Vigil Park, which is the town square located behind the town’s Village Hall. This project will greatly enhance the appearance of the community and those that drive through Tularosa, which is a historic village. The grant helped fund a sprinkler system in the park and in front of the Village Hall, and rose bushes for parks and medians on the main streets of town. Keep Tularosa Beautiful was able to get additional partners and volunteers to install irrigation systems, and for planting and maintaining the rose bushes. Thirty-two volunteers provided more than 1,100 hours of labor installing the sprinkler system. More volunteers planted the rose bushes to grow a multi-colored rose hedge. Keep Truckee Meadows Beautiful The impact of Waste Management’s Think Green Grant campaign for Keep Truckee Meadows Beautiful (KTMB) cannot be overstated. The local Illegal Dumping Task Force implemented a multi-media education and awareness campaign to raise awareness and increase local involvement in fighting illegal dumping. The number of residents reporting illegal dumping increased 366 percent during the same time frame as recorded in 2008 by the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office. Residents are clearly more aware of the issue of illegal dumping and are taking action by calling the 329-DUMP hotline sustained by the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office. In conjunction with the Illegal Dumping Task Force’s prevention campaign, the Great Truckee Meadows Community Cleanup engaged nearly 500 volunteers who removed 85 tons of trash and 236 scrap tires. The Nevada Army Guard once again provided helicopter removal of 10 barely accessible abandoned vehicles to help clean up open spaces. This entire effort was in partnership with the local Waste Management division. Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful worked with the Norristown Weed and Seed organization, the municipality of Norristown and Montgomery County to help revitalize the city. The partnership to initiate an illegal dump site cleanup , tire collection and litter cleanup was part of a comprehensive effort to “Green” Norristown. Two years ago, there were no cleanup events or beautification projects taking place. As a direct result of the Think Green Grant and other local efforts, there have been a multitude of beautification and litter awareness efforts including the Norristown Clean Block Program, the Business District Cleanup events, tree plantings sponsored by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, Tree Tenders classes and the forming of a Shade Tree Commission. Pennsylvania Resources Council The EPA estimates that Americans dispose of 23.9 million CRT television sets annually and only 15 percent to 17 percent of discarded TVs are recycled annually, resulting in approximately 6,000 tons of TV waste that ends up in landfills every year. The Pennsylvania Resources Council (PRC) wanted to improve these recycling rates in Southwestern Pennsylvania, so it implemented the “Don’t Trash that TV” project, a one-day TV recycling drop-off event in February 2009 as well as three supporting “Hard to Recycle” events. The goal of the project was to provide a cost-effective and convenient way for residents to recycle their unwanted TV sets. Over the course of the four recycling events, 760 people participated, recycling nearly 650 televisions as well as other electronic items saving 17.6 tons of TV e-waste from entering local landfills. With a portion of the funding through the Waste Management Think Green Grant, PRC was able to offset a sizable amount of the public’s cost of recycling the televisions. Another goal of the project was to increase awareness of the issue of keeping televisions and other e-waste out of landfills. PRC will use the momentum gained from these four collections under the Think Green Grant umbrella to continue holding e-cycling events through next year. Keep Blackstone Valley Beautiful Keep Blackstone Valley Beautiful, which covers nine towns in the Blackstone Valley region of Rhode Island, created a bilingual recycling and refuse calendar for the residents of Central Falls, R.I., with its Think Green Grant. Utilizing volunteers from a local community center, this 2010 calendar will be distributed free of charge to all residents that utilize the city’s recycling and refuse collection services. The state of Rhode Island has mandated all municipalities achieve a 35 percent diversion rate to avoid paying higher tipping fees. Presently, Central Falls has a diversion rate of 26 percent. The goal of the calendar is to help the city’s recycling and refuse program reach the target. Through a multi-faceted approach, the calendar will help residents better understand and navigate the rules and regulations of the city’s program. Keep Fort Worth Beautiful Special event recycling has been greatly needed in Fort Worth and the Think Green Grant helped catalyze Keep Fort Worth Beautiful’s new “Green Team” to incorporate recycling services at Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra (WSO) concerts, which attract 40,000 patrons every summer. With the grant, Keep Fort Worth Beautiful (KFWB) was able to buy banners to promote recycling at the concert series, aprons for the Green Team members, bags for concert patrons to use to carry their recyclables to new bins that were used at the venue. Moreover, the grant allowed KFWB to promote volunteerism, with nearly 120 volunteers going through hours of training and working at each concert. In 2008, less than 3 percent of the waste was recycled by concertgoers; the number increased to 20 percent in 2009. Using this approach as a model, KFWB plans on continuing with its recycling efforts at the Concerts in the Garden series but will also expand its effort for other special events. Hampton Schools Recycle! Hampton Schools Recycle is a recycling education program that takes place in all Hampton public elementary and secondary schools. Using monies from the Waste Management Think Green Grant, it purchased as many 100-gallon curbside recycling toters as possible – 168 in all. The partners in the program developed guidelines for participation, an application form, and recycling flyers and other materials that were shared with school administrators. In the meantime, schools were requesting recycling education programs. At the time, 17 Hampton schools had started conducting their recycling programs on a limited basis. Over the past summer, program revisions took place and at least six schools without recycling programs inquired about the 2009-2010 school year programs. By the end of the school year, most or all of the grant containers will be distributed. A staff member of Bethel Landfill, the local Waste Management facility, has been strong partners by educating area youth about solid waste through the Tour de Trash efforts. The facility also held an open house that was promoted to select school administrators.
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