Mass. Town Receives Recycling Grant

Townsend will receive 12,000 consumer education mailers and 3,150 set-out containers to help start the curbside program. In addition, up to 25 hours of dedicated DEP personnel time will be available between January and June to provide technical assistance to implement the grant. The entire grant is contingent on the town signing a curbside recycling pickup contract.

A spokesperson for the Board of Health stated that board members are happy to have won the grant. They knew there was a limited amount of funding available and that the process would be very competitive.

"If the people of Townsend can get behind this project and we get a significant amount of participation, we will be able to apply for more and larger grants in the future," explained BOH administrative assistant Susan Boggs-Lightfoot. "This program could very well unlock the vault on grant money that the town really could use in these tight financial times."

Part of the grant money is slated to pay for the help of Irene Congdon of Pepperell, Regional Coordinator for the DEP's Municipal Recycling Incentive Program (MRIP), between January and June of 2003. Mass. DEP has called on Congdon in the past to lend her expertise to towns in Massachusetts who receive these types of grants. She has widespread experience with this work in the state of Pennsylvania as well.

Townsend was one of only three towns to be given this sort of grant this year, stated Peggy Harlow, Recycling Grant Manager for the DEP.

"In the early nineties, every town wanted assistance in starting a recycling program, but it has now dwindled down to just a small handful each year," Harlow said. She added that, on the average, the DEP will receive 200 applications for grant money, but this year there only 60 were submitted. Townsend was selected primarily because the DEP places recycling programs on the top of the list for criteria when selecting winning bids, she said.

The total amount of money the DEP has awarded in the past averaged around $1.5 million per year, but there was only $400,000 available to fund grants this year.

"The town will now have to vote at their next town meeting to fund payment for a vendor and then have a valid contract in place with a vendor before the DEP will release [the grant]," Harlow said.

Further information about the grant, as well as data that show how the taxpayer can directly save money by participating in this recycling program, is available from the Board of Health at 978-597-1713. – Pepperell (Mass.) Free Press