NDEQ Awards $1.9 Million in Waste Reduction and Recycling Grants
Department of Environment and Energy
News Release
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NDEQ Awards $1.9 Million in Waste Reduction and Recycling Grants
Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality Director Jim Macy today announced the awarding of $1.9 million in grants to 32 recipients through the Waste Reduction and Recycling Incentive Grant Fund. For 2018, the Department received over $4.4 million in eligible grant applications.
The Waste Reduction and Recycling Incentive Grant Fund is generated by a fee on solid waste disposed of in landfills, an annual retail business sales fee, and a fee assessed on the sale of new tires for motor vehicles. The grants are provided to local integrated waste management projects including: recycling systems, household hazardous waste collection programs, transfer stations, and yard waste composting. Tire fee grants totaling nearly $1.6 million for projects related to tire recycling were previously announced in June (more information).
The table below provides a list, by city, of all 2018 grantees, and includes the amount awarded and a description of the projects receiving grant support.
2018 Waste Reduction and Recycling Grant Award Recipients
| Town | Applicant Name | Award | Project Description |
| Alliance | Keep Alliance Beautiful | $51,406 | Funds to operate Alliance's recycling center and to provide waste reduction and recycling education in Box Butte County. |
| Bristow | Village of Bristow | $9,860 | Funds to build a concrete pad/bunker and a sign to serve as a collection site for glass for Bristow and Boyd County residents. |
| Chadron | Keep Chadron Beautiful | $42,313 | Funding to recover cardboard and office paper from Chadron for recycling. |
| Chadron | Keep Chadron Beautiful | $3,250 | Host an electronic waste collection for the Chadron area. Funds are an addition to a 2018 Litter grant award to hold this event. Estimate diverting 15,000 lbs. of e-waste. |
| Dodge | Village of Dodge | $9,417 | Crush 2,000 tons of concrete. Crushed concrete will be used as a base to improve Front Street in Dodge. |
| Fremont | Keep Fremont Beautiful | $32,144 | Funds to hold one household hazardous waste event for the City of Fremont and Dodge County residents. In 2017, removed over 14,000 lbs. and 59 gallons of household hazardous waste. |
| Fremont | Horizon Biofuels Inc. | $170,000 | 50% of the cost of industrial wood shredding equipment to shred mixed wood waste (pallets, crates, construction waste, etc.) which contain metal and other contaminants (which will be removed). The shredded wood will be used to create renewable energy products and divert wood waste from the landfill. |
| Grand Island | Grand Island Area Clean Community System | $112,661 | Funds to operate the Household Hazardous Waste Collection facility. Anticipate shipping 11 semi-loads of household hazardous waste for proper disposal. |
| Hebron | Trailblazer Resource Conservation & Development (RC&D) | $16,500 | Host electronic waste collection events in seven counties (Clay, Thayer, Nuckolls, Webster, Franklin, Fillmore, and Harlan) and divert approximately 150,000 lbs. of e-waste from the landfill. |
| Kearney | City of Kearney | $19,376 | Funds to purchase a vertical baler for the Kearney Recycling Center to bale recyclables as sorted and reduce storage space needed until materials are shipped to market. Kearney ships about 215 semi-loads of baled recyclables to market per year. |
| Lexington | Lexington Area Solid Waste Agency | $24,768 | Host 3-4 household hazardous waste events in central Nebraska. Over 36,000 lbs. of household hazardous collected in 2017. Will serve Brown, Blaine, Thomas, Hooker, McPherson, Logan, Custer, Dawson, and Gosper counties. |
| Lincoln | Keep Nebraska Beautiful | $68,461 | Funds to operate three statewide programs: Nebraska Materials Exchange Program, Nebraska Food Waste Reduction Program, and Nebraska Used Oil Collection Program. Over 13 million pounds recycled last year. |
| Lincoln | Lincoln Public Schools | $24,892 | Compost program to divert over 1.1 million lbs. of cafeteria waste in one year. Has a goal of 50% diversion for schools with recycling and compost programs, and 75% diversion in cafeteria waste in schools with compost programs. |
| Lincoln | Uribe Refuse Services | $33,333 | Plans to offset up to 20% of costs for commercial customers receiving food waste recycling services during their first year of participation. Plan to increase food waste recycling up to 6,500 tons/year and reduce greenhouse gas by an additional 9,750 metric tons/year. |
| Lincoln | Nebraska Recycling Council | $48,728 | Funds to expand the Hub and Spoke program to 22 counties in North Central Nebraska, and support counties already using the program. |
| Lincoln | Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department | $178,202 | Household hazardous waste disposal costs, plus branding and marketing services for continued public education for the Household Hazardous Waste center and related toxics reduction programs. |
| Lincoln | University of Nebraska-Lincoln | $69,778 | UNL's Partners in Pollution Prevention P3 program to provide waste reduction and recycling solutions to five Nebraska businesses, resulting in cost savings (>$500,000/year) and solid waste diversion (> 2,000 tons/year). |
| Lincoln | Solid Waste Management Division - City of Lincoln | $124,475 | Personnel costs and year 2 of a 3-year residential & commercial recycling education campaign; measuring the effectiveness of the cardboard diversion plan. |
| Louisville | Keep Cass County Beautiful | $1,999 | Funds to host four electronic waste recycling events in Cass County. Collected over 20,000 lbs. from 2017. |
| McCook | Red Willow County | $189,833 | Hold 49 household hazardous waste collection events and 14 pickups/disposals, serving over 13,000 participants. Plan to collect 250,000 lbs. Will partner with 10 Resource & Conservation Districts, 19 Natural Resource Districts, 14 public health departments, 8 Keep America Beautiful affiliates, and 40 counties. |
| North Platte | Keep North Platte and Lincoln County Beautiful | $12,336 | Work with seven businesses on recycling and waste minimization. Work will include commercial waste audits, designing of in-house programs with employees, and a bin loan and purchase program. |
| Oakland | Nebraska Loess Hills RC&D Council | $17,142 | Hold three household hazardous waste collections to serve Burt, Cuming, Dakota, Dodge, Thurston, and Washington counties. Plan to properly dispose of 27,500 lbs. of waste that might otherwise go to a landfill. |
| Oakland | Nebraska Loess Hills RC&D Council | $7,662 | Host an electronic waste collection in Pender for Burt, Cuming, Dodge, Dakota, Thurston, and Washington counties to divert an estimated 16,800 lbs. of e-waste from the landfill. |
| Ogallala | Keep Keith County Beautiful | $7,280 | Host two electronic waste collection events for Keith County residents and the surrounding area. Anticipate collecting 20,000 lbs. |
| Ogallala | Western Resources Group | $96,065 | Funds toward a roll-off trailer to move recycling roll-off containers to smaller areas of the hub and spoke service area. |
| Ogallala | Keep Keith County Beautiful | $6,455 | Host a household hazardous waste collection for Keith County residents. Expect to collect more than 6,500 lbs. of waste. |
| Omaha | Keep Omaha Beautiful | $38,494 | Funds for public education for household hazardous waste, yard waste, vermicomposting, and to promote the Under the Sink program. |
| Omaha | City of Omaha – Under the Sink HHW Facility | $337,500 | Funds are for the Under the Sink Household Hazardous Waste facility to collect and manage over 1 million lbs./year of household hazardous waste from Douglas and Sarpy Counties. |
| Scottsbluff | Keep Scottsbluff Gering Beautiful | $68,875 | Funds to host a household hazardous waste collection and a pharmaceutical take-back event. Estimate collecting over 14,000 lbs. of household hazardous waste and over 4,000 lbs. of pharmaceutical waste, based on prior events. |
| St. Paul | City of St. Paul | $19,000 | Funds for educational materials, signs, and advertising to educate St. Paul and Howard County residents on proper recycling. |
| Tecumseh | Five Rivers RC&D | $51,123 | Conduct 10-11 electronic waste collections (including appliances) in 8 counties (Cass, Jefferson, Johnson, Nemaha, Otoe, Pawnee, Richardson & Saline). |
| Wayne | City of Wayne | $6,672 | Funds to hold an electronic waste collection event for the City of Wayne. |