Recycling bin grant program kicks off fifth year

The Dr Pepper Snapple Group/Keep America Beautiful Park Recycling Bin Grant program has opened its 2017 application process, offering new opportunities to make recycling convenient for communities across the country.

Now in its fifth year, the grant program from Dr Pepper Snapple Group and Keep America Beautiful, Stamford, Connecticut, has awarded more than 3,400 recycling bins to local governments and community organizations across 38 states to expand the availability of recycling in a variety of park settings, including neighborhood and larger regional parks, beaches, athletic fields and walking trails.

To apply for the merit-based grant program, interested organizations and communities complete an online form, detailing their proposal and selecting the number and style of recycling bins from available options. Keep America Beautiful says it will competitively review and award grants based on need and likelihood to recover significant quantities of recyclables. Arrangements will be made to deliver the recycling bins directly to the grant recipients in May 2017. 

Applications are open for submission at irecycleonthego.wordpress.com through Feb. 24, 2017.

Vicki Draughn, vice president of corporate affairs for Dr Pepper Snapple Group, says, “Providing choices and options is central to our commitment to our consumers. That not only means making and selling a wide range of the brands they love, but also increasing the convenient recycling options available to them in their favorite parks and community spaces.” 

Draughn continues, “We’re proud of our longstanding work with Keep America Beautiful to help communities across America enjoy cleaner public spaces and reduce the strain on their landfills by improving access to recycling on-the-go.”

The lack of away-from-home recycling opportunities is reflected in a recent national survey Keep America Beautiful conducted to determine where people normally recycle. While 92 percent reported that they recycled at home, only 19 percent indicated that they typically recycle in public parks. Additional research conducted by Keep America Beautiful indicated only 12 percent of surveyed public locations had recycling infrastructure in place to recover the containers.

“Making recycling more accessible in public parks will help expand recycling opportunities and further reinforce proper recycling behavior in park settings,” says Brenda Pulley, senior vice president of recycling, Keep America Beautiful. “Keep America Beautiful is pleased that our partnership with Dr Pepper Snapple Group is helping to bring the convenience of public space recycling to more people.”
 
In addition to improving recycling opportunities, the grant program will fund Keep America Beautiful’s community-based affiliates or other grant recipients who commit to conducting a litter index in conjunction with the grant. The index will be used to study the effects of the recycling bins to reduce litter in the immediate areas of the bins.