The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection announced the awarding to $18 million in recycling grants for 58 communities in the state.
Additionally, David Hess, DEP Secretary, highlighted advances the Commonwealth has made in recycling during remarks at the opening session of the Recycling Market Development Summit II in Camp Hill, Penn.
"These grants will help Pennsylvania reach a goal of recycling 35 percent of the waste stream by providing funding for education, additional curbside collection and recycling-center improvements," Hess said.
The $18 million in grants is in addition to $6.5 million in recycling grants for 31 Pennsylvania communities that was announced at the statewide Composting Conference on May 24.
The grants will be used to support programs that are recycling approximately 3.9 million tons of material per year in the state and will add another 127,000 tons per year.
"Recycling is growing in Pennsylvania, as there are now 1,580 local recycling programs in the state," Secretary Hess said. "And let's not forget the special collections for household hazardous waste and unwanted electronics."
Recycling businesses in Pennsylvania create more than 81,000 jobs and contribute 23.4 billion dollars to the state's economy.
During the last few years, DEP has used recommendations made at the first recycling summit to enhance the Commonwealth's recycling market development program by:
-- Adding a statewide compost coordinator to facilitate composting efforts
in the Commonwealth;
-- Adding staff for market-development efforts;
-- Updating the markets database and making it web-accessible; and
-- Contracting for a consultant to further analyze the Commonwealth's
market-development efforts and to provide recommendations for further
efforts.
DEP also held a Recycling Finance Seminar, bringing together business- development specialists, bank officials, economic-development officials, consultants, recyclers and other state agencies to educate all the groups on how financial organizations and recyclers can work together.
DEP also has posted a searchable database of processors and a directory of specialty recyclers on its website.
DEP is working with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PENNDOT) to use recycled-content materials in some selected projects. PENNDOT is using recycled compost to renovate its rest stops throughout the state, and the agency used about 800,000 discarded tires in the Tartown bridge project in Armstrong County.
DEP also has co-sponsored research into alternate uses for crushed glass. These studies with PENNDOT, private recyclers and universities around the Commonwealth evaluated all the engineering characteristics of glass. That research has resulted in demonstration projects with PENNDOT using glass in the base course of some interstate highways and parking areas.
"Since the first Recycling Market Development Summit, DEP has developed 20 specific ways to increase recycling in the state," Secretary Hess said. "Let's make sure we do even more with the partnerships and ideas we form at the summit this year."
For information on recycling, visit the PA PowerPort at http://www.state.pa.us/, PA Keyword: "recycling."