As the country looks to a new normal, recycling industries will take stock of impacts to move collection and production forward. SERDC is pleased to announce Recycling Revisited, a five-part webinar series to bring forth awareness for the Southeast and beyond about how these adaptations are going to change collection, processing and manufacturing of feedstock.

All webinars are one hour in length and begin at 11 am EST.

Through the generous support of ISRI and MACHINEX, the webinars are free of charge to all attendees and the recording will be posted to the serdc.org website.

You will automatically be registered for the full series with one entry.

• Wednesday May 26th: Paper

• Tuesday, July 20th: Plastic

• Wednesday, Aug 18th: Glass

• Wednesday, Sept 1st: Metal

• Wednesday, Oct 6th: Other Recyclables and Emerging Markets

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Recycling Program recently provided $492,937 in recycling business development grants to 16 North Carolina recycling companies. The grants are projected to create 108 new jobs and generate more than $1.3 million in new, private business investments while reducing the state’s dependence on landfill disposal.

“Recycling businesses provide high quality jobs for North Carolinians and play a unique role in boosting the state’s economy while improving the state’s environmental and carbon footprint,” said Jamie Ragan, director of the Division of Environmental Assistance and Customer Service. “These grant-funded projects will create jobs and put recyclable materials back into the state’s economy, thereby helping manufacturers make new products, reducing North Carolina’s reliance on foreign markets and ultimately diverting material from the waste stream.”

Grants are offered each year, depending on funding availability, to reduce the flow of solid waste into landfills and continue growing the state’s recycling economy. Recipients are required to provide a minimum cash match of 50 percent of the grant award; however, the level of private investment in 2021 is expected to more than double the total grant funding. The combination of grant and private dollars will result in a nearly $1.8 million investment in the state’s recycling infrastructure.

Setting the goal to achieve a 50 per cent recycle rate in the US by the end of the decade, the Glass Packaging Institute (GPI) has partnered with Boston Consulting Group (BCG) to develop a 10 year plan to achieve this goal.

The 10 year plan has three pillars:

The Carton Council will be awarding $2,000 each to up to 25 communities from across the country for work in educating residents about recycling, with special attention paid to food and beverage cartons.

The award program is open to any U.S. entity that educates residents about their local recycling program. This includes community or county recycling departments and solid waste authorities, and materials recovery facilities (MRFs). State recycling organizations (SRO's) are not eligible to participate but encouraged to play an important role in helping their constituent communities be aware of the opportunity. Sign up to participate by May 14, 2021.

The Carolina Recycling Association, CRA, has been awarded a grant from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to assist rural and small community residential commingled or source separated recycling programs in North and South Carolina. The purpose of this grant will fund the purchase and distribution of education and outreach materials for these communities in order to help educate citizens on what can be recycled in their respective communities and to combat recycling contamination.

Applicants should carefully read entire application before completing.

Funding will be paid at $1.95 per household with a maximum award of $11,200 per community (including printing). For example, if a community has 1,000 households, the community can choose a maximum of $1,995 worth of educational materials. Materials direct mailed to households will also be paid by the grant through CRA and is not included in the $1.95 per household award.

Through its second round of grant funding, the Coalition will provide an additional three grants to Materials Recovery Facilities (MRFs) across the United States to boost sortation of polypropylene and support targeted consumer education efforts. To date, the Coalition has awarded grants for seven MRFs across the U.S. These investments aim to improve curbside polypropylene recycling access for an additional 3% of all U.S. households, impacting a total of 7.2 million people nationally. This aims to increase the recovery of polypropylene by an estimated 4,300 tons annually to be made into new products, such as consumer packaging and automotive parts, rather than being sent to landfills or incineration.

The next grant proposal request is due June 30, 2021. MRFs interested in sorting and recycling polypropylene are encouraged to apply.