Ohio EPA awards recycling market development grants

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded a total of $1.24 million in recycling market development grant money to eight companies that will use the money to upgrade and install new equipment that will allow the companies to sharply increase the amount of recyclables they will be process.

The projects include assisting four businesses with recycling and diverting more material (including plastics, glass and fiber) from regional waste streams; expanding the capability of a construction and demolition debris facility; and increasing the capacity to process electronics waste at a material recovery facility.

Collectively, the eight companies receiving the grant money are expected to create 28 new jobs.

Both businesses and nonprofit groups are eligible for funding, but must be sponsored by a public entity, such as a municipality, county, township or solid waste management district.

Projects approved for funding include:

• Quality Farms in partnership with the city of Dayton, to purchase product deconstruction processing equipment, has been awarded a grant of $232,509;
• New Avenues to Independence sponsored by the Cuyahoga County Solid Waste Management District, awarded $21,000 to install balers to process medical plastic materials;
• JDM Services, LLC – Frank Road C&D, supported by Franklin County, was awarded a grant of $250,000. The grant involves a new construction and demolition debris material processing unit;
• Accurate IT Services in conjunction with Franklin County, has received a grant of $131,668 that will be used to purchase a Stokermill recycling unit to address electronic materials;
• Second Harvest, supported by Lorain County Solid Waste Management District, has received a grant of $6,425 to purchase a baler to process stretch film;
• Fremont Plastic Products, in conjunction with the Ottawa Sandusky Seneca Solid Waste Management District, received a grant of $225,000 to install an off-spec plastic grinding unit;
• Momentive Performance Materials, sponsored by Union Township (Licking County), received a grant of $125,000 to purchase a glass grinding and sizing unit; and
• Next Generation Films,  in partnership with the village of Lexington (Richland County), received a grant of $250,000 to recycle plastic film not meeting specifications.
• Additionally, the Ohio EPA has awarded a $350,000 grant to Coshocton Industries. The grant money, which came through the agency’s Scrap Tire Processing and Market Development, will be used to boost the markets for scrap tires throughout the state. Coshocton Industries will use the funding to develop a new technology to process tires more efficiently and produce an end product for both the automobile industry and athletic installation market. The investment will create 14 new jobs.