Monroe County Recycling Programs Awarded $1.6 Million In Grants

According to the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), Monroe County was awarded nearly $1.6 Million from the Municipal Waste Planning, Recycling and Waste Reduction Act. The 160 counties in Pennsylvania received a total of $30.5 million in Recycling Development and Implementation Grants. Counties were awarded grants for their recycling collections, education, and leaf litter pickup programs.

“These grants help bolster recycling in communities all over Pennsylvania and reduce the amount of waste going into our landfills,” said Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Patrick McDonnell. “Whether it’s from increased education for residents or an entire facility for sorting recyclables, these grants are making a difference.”

Burning leaves is in many municipalities banned. This means that most of these grants counties are obtaining are through leaf waste management programs.

“Composting leaf waste from residential areas is safer and more environmentally friendly than burning leaves, which causes air pollution,” McDonnell said.

Approximately 6 million tons of material are recycled every year in the keystone state. Recycling programs have many benefits as they create jobs, save valuable resources, revitalize the environmental areas by producing less waste, and create recyclable products used by you or me every day.

According to a 2017 Recycling Economic Impact Study, 66,000 people are employed in the recycling marketplace. As many as 110,000 people work indirectly with recycled materials and related processing. Employees of these fields are adding $22.6 billion of recyclable state products. The climate change initiative of Pennsylvania (which reduces 10 million metric tons of emissions annually via recycling) is vital in the effort to combat pollution. Roughly 2.15 million cars worth (25% of all cars in Pennsylvania) emissions are removed yearly through these programs.

According to the Municipal Waste Planning, Recycling and Waste Reduction Act, up to 90% of the total cost of these recycling and waste management programs is reimbursed. Municipalities considered financially distressed (under the Financial Distressed Communities Act) can receive an extra 10% of funding if needed. Those who met the demand for recycled goods also received a grant for their environmental waste reduction efforts.

Examples of eligible projects include: operating leaf compost facilities, developing web-based programs on recycling for consumers, expanding recycling processing facilities, installing data collection systems on recycling vehicles, continuing and creating curbside recycling programs, and developing educational materials to encourage residents to recycle.

According to a (DEP), Monroe county and its municipalities were able to receive funding from Gov. Wolfs Administration in the following amounts:

* Chestnuthill twp. ($350,000)

* Coolbaugh twp. ($350,000)

* Monroe County Municipal Waste Management Authority . ($350,000)

* Oakgrove twp.($229,819)

* Smithfield Twp. ($186,981)

* Polk Twp. ($78,626)

* East Stroudsburg borough ($47,694)

Governor Wolf’s Litter Action Plan is an initiative that seeks to clean up litter across the commonwealth and prevent littering from happening at all.

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