Waste Management Provides Grants to KAB Affiliates

Stamford, Conn.-based Keep America Beautiful (KAB), the national nonprofit organization, has announced that Houston-based Waste Management (WM) has awarded $10,000 individual grants to 10 KAB affiliates. Waste Management Think Green grants are awarded to encourage community sustainability through local environmental efforts.

The merit-based grants are awarded to KAB affiliates that have designed programs to increase local recycling efforts, expand public environmental education or enhance local beautification and community greening initiatives. WM has provided support for more than 100 KAB community solution-based projects throughout the past eight years through its grants programs.

KAB affiliates can increase the potential of their community improvement projects with the help of Waste Management Think Green grants. For example, Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful in Duluth, Ga., and Greensboro Beautiful, Greensboro, N.C., are establishing school-based recycling programs; Hot Springs/Garland County Beautification in Hot Springs, Ark., is working to reduce the amount of pharmaceutical and personal care waste entering the local water system; and Keep Winston-Salem Beautiful, Winston-Salem, N.C., will plant hundreds of trees along the Newell/Massey Greenway and New Walkertown Road in East Winston-Salem as part of its next Community Roots Day.

Waste Management is an active supporter in many of KAB’s national programs, including the Great American Cleanup, America Recycles Day and RecycleMania.

“Keep America Beautiful applauds the work of all of this year’s grant winners and their continuing efforts to create and sustain greener, more vibrant communities,” says KAB President and CEO Matthew McKenna. “We’re thankful to Waste Management for their ongoing partnership and transformative support of America’s communities through the Think Green Grant program.”

Barry Caldwell, WM senior vice president and chief communications officer and past KAB chairman of the board, says, “Waste Management, KAB and its affiliates share the common goal of providing sustainable environmental and beautification programs that help enhance the quality of life of the communities we serve. So we are pleased once again to support KAB’s affiliate network and the vital work they do.”

The KAB affiliate 2012 Waste Management Think Green Grants recipients are:

•    Greensboro Beautiful, Greensboro, N.C.;
•    Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful, Inc., Duluth, Ga.;
•    Hampton Clean City, Hampton, Va.;
•    Hot Springs/Garland County Beautification, Hot Springs, Ark.;
•    Keep Forth Worth Beautiful, Fort Worth, Texas;
•    Keep Greenville County Beautiful, Greenville, S.C.;
•    Keep Jackson Beautiful, Inc., Jackson, Miss.;
•    Keep Pearland Beautiful, Pearland, Texas;
•    Keep Truckee Meadows Beautiful, Reno, Nev.; and
•    Keep Winston-Salem Beautiful, Winston-Salem, N.C.