Mike Linder, the director of the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), has announced that it has awarded $1.7 million in grants for waste reduction and recycling projects to a number of companies, nonprofit groups and government agencies.
The funds come from the state’s Waste Reduction and Recycling Incentive Grant Fund. This fund is generated by a fee on solid waste disposed of in landfills, an annual retail business sales fee and a fee assessed on the sale of new tires for motor vehicles.
The DEQ awarded a total of $775,965 to 15 public, private or nonprofit organizations from the business fee. Funding recipients are:
- G7 Innovations Inc., dba PC Recycling, $129,646 to host 12 community collection events throughout Nebraska;
- Grand Island Area Clean Community System, $33,151 for a hazardous household waste permanent facility;
- Gretna Sanitation Inc., $54,067 to purchase a used wheel loader to compost yard waste;
- Habitat for Humanity, $28,995 to purchase a used 16-foot box city van for picking up donated materials and a narrow aisle reach truck to move materials within a second ReStore;
- Joslyn Castle Institute for Sustainable Communities, $83,100 for “Net Zero Waste Template” for communities;
- Keep Columbus Beautiful, $12,313 to host one household hazardous waste collection event for citizens;
- Keep Fremont Beautiful, $25,884 to host a one-day household hazardous waste collection event in Fremont for citizens of Fremont, Arlington, Inglewood and Dodge County;
- Keep Kimball Beautiful, $22,762 to purchase a shredder and to finance the Keep Kimball Beautiful program;
- Nebraska Loess Hills Resource Conservation and Development, $16,084 to host three household hazardous waste collection events in the cities of Bancroft, Dakota City/South Sioux City and Decatur;
- Nebraska Loess Hills Resource Conservation and Development, $1,250 for an electronics collection event;
- Nebraska State Recycling Association, $140,081 to implement FilterPave glass paving projects;
- Nebraska State Recycling Association, $117,150 for a recycling study;
- SectorNow LLC, $31,036 to expand its waste assessment software, to develop a hospitality industry module to include hazardous waste materials and hazardous waste handling assessment and add a GPS-driven waste resource directory based on WasteCap Nebraska’s environmental service providers guidebook;
- Trailblazer Resource Conservation and Development, $20,029 for household hazardous waste collections in the counties of Clay, Thayer, Nuckolls, Webster, Franklin and Harlan; and
- WasteCap Nebraska, Lincoln, $60,417 for a Sustainable Business Certification pilot program.
Funds from the disposal fee, totaling $916,461, were awarded to:
- City of Lincoln Public Works and Utilities, $20,868 for public education;
- City of Omaha, Environmental Quality Division, $280,000 for an under-the-sink permanent household hazardous waste facility;
- Four Corners Health Department, $15,645 to host three household hazardous waste collection events in York, Seward and Butler counties;
- Lexington Area Solid Waste Agency, $22,121 for seven household hazardous and electronics waste collection events in the area;
- Lincoln Public Schools, $13,292 for 50 percent of the salary for a recycling coordinator for one year;
- Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department, $111,255 to host from five to eight household hazardous waste collection events and two Conditionally Exempt Small Quantity Generator collections in the Lincoln, Lancaster County, area;
- Nemaha Natural Resources District, $35,568 to host nine household hazardous waste collections events in a seven county area, which includes Jefferson, Johnson, Nemaha, Otoe, Pawnee, Richardson and Saline counties;
- Nemaha Natural Resources District, $26,900 to purchase a brush chipper for use with invasive woody vegetation within the Nemaha Natural Resources Districts area;
- Omaha Public Power District, $55,500 for the third year of the refrigerator recycling program for consumers living in the Omaha Public Power District service area;
- Otoe County Roads Department, $93,056 to purchase a compact track loader, mulching head attachment and trailer to grind and mulch brush and small trees in Otoe County road ditches;
- Red Willow County $105,950 to host 40 household hazardous waste collection events in Nebraska, collecting household hazardous waste, computers, paint, batteries and fluorescent bulbs;
- Seward/Saline County Solid Waste Management Agency, $7,972 to purchase a recycling bin trailer for use by citizens of Beaver Crossing and the surrounding rural area;
- Solid Waste Agency of Northwest Nebraska (SWANN), $28,032 to purchase four roll-off boxes for cardboard collected in the SWANN area;
- University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UN-L), $54,998 to combine the environmental management experience of UN-L’s Pollution Prevention Program and the innovative manufacturing expertise of the UN-L Non-Traditional Manufacturing group to provide waste-reduction assistance to at least ten Nebraska businesses;
- University of Nebraska-Omaha, $35,800 for supplies to conduct training on waste management within a sustainable facility; and
- Village of Verdigre, $9,504 for new activities designed to increase the volume and types of materials recycled.
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