Recent News

Grant funds of up to $500,000 are available to communities in the SERDC region that want to offer curbside recycling, increase participation rates by going to recycling containers over bins/bags or equipment needs to make recycling more efficient and effective in their communities.

Proposals are due to SERDC by May 24, 2019 for the first round of funding review.  More information on the grant is here.  If you intend to apply, please email will.sagar@serdc.org so we can judge volume.

 Two things you can do starting now: 

Clean it up. The primary need is to reduce contamination. Current contamination levels of 25% are typical. This greatly increases the processing cost and reduces the value of the market bound material.  

• Messaging about what to recycle must be more clear.
• There is a need to focus on the targeted material types.
• Get back to the basics we all understand. Bottles, cans, cartons, cups, and clean paper.
• Keep the food, foam and film (bags) out of the bin. 
• Tanglers and junk, such as cords, hoses, string lights, coat hangers, don’t belong in the bin!
• When in doubt, check the local public works website for information.

Increase participation. Increasing participation will also reduce the cost per ton. A focused outreach program to encourage recycling is needed.

National nonprofit Keep America Beautiful and The Coca-Cola Foundation on America Recycles Day announced the opening of the application period for the 2018 Keep America Beautiful/Coca-Cola Public Spaces Recycling Bin Grant Program. In its 12th year, the initiative is designed to increase access to recycling in community public spaces across America. Grant applications will be available online through Dec. 30 (11:59 p.m. EST), 2018. Applicants may visit BinGrant.org to apply.

The 2018 program will distribute 4,500 recycling bins in public space locations ranging from athletic fields to fairs and festivals to downtown streetscapes and playgrounds and other on-the-go settings. The program is funded through a $350,000 grant from The Coca-Cola Foundation to Keep America Beautiful, which in turn awards recycling bins through a competitive, merit-based application process.

Eligible recipients for the 2018 Public Spaces Recycling Bin Grant Program include government agencies, colleges and universities, civic organizations, public and local nonprofit groups throughout the United States. Keep America Beautiful will award the grants in mid-January 2019 and make arrangements with suppliers to deliver recycling bins directly to the recipients in the first quarter of 2019. 

“Community recycling is one of the key ways The Coca-Cola Foundation is helping communities address litter and support the environment. In partnership with Keep America Beautiful, we can help communities reduce litter by offering grants for recycling bins in parks, recreation areas, campuses and city streets,” said Helen Smith Price, President of The Coca-Cola Foundation.

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The Coca-Cola Foundation Awards $500,000 to SERDC to Build Recycling Infrastructure in the Southeast

On November 12, at the SERDC Summit in Charleston, South Carolina, the Coca-Cola Foundation announced an award of $500,000 to the Southeast Recycling Development Council (SERDC) to expand recycling in the Southeast through the launch of a Recycling Infrastructure Grant Program.

Bolstering Infrastructure
Investment in physical infrastructure, such as recycling carts, material recovery facility (MRF) upgrades, recycling trucks or transfer stations to support investments in curbside recycling infrastructure, are key to dramatically increasing material recovery - connecting material generation with hungry end markets in the southeast and helping to close the loop for packaging.

“With the Coca-Cola Foundation’s generous support, this grant will support efforts to expand comprehensive curbside recycling in the Southeastern United States,” said Will Sagar, Executive Director at SERDC.

Two-year rolling grant cycle
The grant program, implemented over the next two years, will make measurable improvements and catalyze investments in recycling infrastructure. Southeastern communities (defined as Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia) can apply for the grant funding.  Recycling carts, material recovery facility (MRF) upgrades, recycling trucks, or transfer station construction will be included as eligible under the RFP if it leads to unlocking investments in curbside recycling infrastructure overall.

This program will include collaboration with The Recycling Partnership, state recycling officials, local government partners, and other organizations as appropriate. The grant targets investment in infrastructure that unlocks new material supply that is currently being landfilled.  Awarded grants will include a mix of infrastructure deployment alongside technical assistance and educational materials.

Organizations are invited to read more and download the application criteria for the grant at www.serdc.org/Recycling-Infrastructure-Grant. The grants will be awarded on a rolling basis.

The grant’s objectives include fostering communication among these groups, promoting sustainable recycling programs, and coordinating educational and public awareness activities related to recycling.  By doing so, this would further SERDC’s primary purpose of increasing the collection and recovery of materials and in turn fostering economic development.

About

The Coca-Cola Company has contributed more than $13 million to support recycling programs and infrastructure and helped place more than 1 million recycling bins in communities throughout the U.S. These efforts support the company’s recently announced World Without Waste initiative, which aims to collect a bottle or can for every one the company sells by 2030.  The Coca-Cola Company is a long-standing sponsor of the Southeast Recycling Development Council.

The Southeast Recycling Development Council (SERDC) was formed in 2005 because of the need for a regional recycling organization in the Southeast with the goal of bringing additional materials to markets.  SERDC’s mission is to unite industry, government and organizations to promote sustainable recycling in the Southeast. SERDC’s website is www.serdc.org.

Concerned about the sustainability of recycling? You need to be at the Summit!

• Earlybird registration ends Monday (Save $100)
• Hotel block closes Tuesday-- don't risk a hotel room sellout or price increase, book now.
• Monday's EPA Making the Case for Recycling Toolkit Training Workshop (1-5 pm) is free through Monday when you register "on scholarship"
• Two receptions, Exhibit Hall, Expert speakers and more.

Registration Ends Friday, October 5

Make connections, grow your business, and build a better tomorrow by attending the 5th Annual Recycling Business Connections on October 9 in Greensboro, NC. The Carolina Recycling Association, NC Recycling Business Assistance Center, and SC Department of Commerce are working together to provide a unique networking opportunity for you to make connections new & old that will help grow your business.

SERDC is pleased to offer this unique webinar with three experts who will provide information on successful programs for ensuring high quality curbside recyclables collection. They will share their tricks for improving material quality, and offer insight into what works – and doesn’t work, in residential single stream curbside recycling programs.

This forward-looking webinar will include tips from experts, and tactics for successful recycling in 2018. Join us Thursday September 27 at 1 pm ET for a one-hour deep dive into successful recycling in our high-stakes, no-contamination world of recycling and come away with tools for success in your community.  The webinar will be moderated by Susan Robinson, Federal Public Affairs Director of Waste Management.

Michelle Metzler is Waste Management’s Public Outreach Manager in the Pacific Northwest. For over a decade, Michelle has been working directly with customers, providing information to ensure customer know how to recycle right. Michelle currently leads a team of professionals and interns who have been able to keep inbound contamination in programs in the Pacific Northwest under 10%. Learn how these Best Practices work, and ask questions of Michelle about their successful programs; 

Bob Cappadona is Vice President at Casella Recycling, and has been in the trenches for over twenty-five years, working with communities in the Northeastern U.S. Bob has been actively engaged with cities in the greater New England area implementing programs to improve the material quality collected for recycling. We’ll get insight from Bob about some of the successes in driving contamination reduction out of municipal programs – and what it takes to make these improvements. 

Scott Mouw is the Senior Director of Technical Assistance at The Recycling Partnership. Passionate about taking a systems approach, Scott enjoys putting recycling data to work to help community programs thrive. Prior to joining The Partnership, Scott spent a career directing North Carolina’s highly regarded state recycling program. He has participated in a wide range of regional and national initiatives to advance recycling, including overseeing the development of The Recycling Partnership while serving on board of the Southeast Recycling Development Council and working with the Sustainable Packaging Coalition, the Association of Plastics Recyclers, the Glass Recycling Coalition, and AMERIPEN. Scott and his family call Raleigh, NC home.

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At this week's WasteCon “Fighting Contamination" workshop, representatives from The Recycling Partnership, Waste Management, Keep America Beautiful and the Southeast Recycling Development Council had attendees brainstorm ways to reduce contamination in their local areas.

One theme that stuck out was public education and the challenge of getting people to change their behavior. The Recycling Partnership advocated for a simplified marketing approach that used a more “direct ask” (e.g., a poster with bold letters saying “Don’t bag your recycling”) to initiate one change at a time instead of listing off multiple steps for people to take. Keep America Beautiful emphasized the need for consistency in education.

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We accidentally left out two additional events going on in the Southeast in our July Monthly Newsletter:

• Tennessee Recycling Coalition's Conference on August 12-14 in Franklin, TN.
  
• Mississippi's Magnolia SWANA Conference on October 16-18 in Natchez, MS.

Quality of material has never been more important.  On Monday August 20, 2018, from 1-5 pm CT, The Recycling Partnership, in partnership with Keep America Beautiful, and the Southeast Recycling Development Council (SERDC) will facilitate an energetic and creative workshop that will engage the audience and present proven best management practices and operational protocols that have been proven to decrease contamination and increase the capture of recyclables.  Participants will learn tactics and practical strategies for operations and outreach to take on the challenge of contamination.

The workshop is free to attend and through the support of Waste Management, travel scholarships are being offered.  Applications are due by Monday, July 23 at 12 pm CT.

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