Illinois State Receives Grant To Expand Recycling Program

Date: 7/30/07
Contact: Chuck Scott

 

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich has announced that Illinois State University will receive nearly $60 thousand in grant funding to expand its recycling programs. The grant money, administered by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO), comes from the Illinois Recycling Grant Program.

The $59,968 in grant funding will help Illinois State to expand its existing recycling efforts through the purchase of additional recycling containers and a larger collection truck. It is projected that the added recycling containers and new collection truck will allow the University to increase its general recycling rate by 10 percent and the rate in campus housing areas by 25 percent.

The application for the grant funding was submitted by Illinois State’s Green Team, a campus-wide organization of faculty, staff and students that promotes environmental awareness and sustainability on campus. The grant will be matched through the retention and hiring of additional recycling staff and efforts related to environmental awareness to promote and advertise the expanded recycling project.

“The Green Team is very excited about working on this grant with the Department of Commerce and Economic Development,” said Chuck Scott, executive director of facilities management at Illinois State and chair of the University’s Green Team. “The University currently collects over 1500 tons of recyclable materials each year and, through this grant, the purchase of a new collection vehicle and additional containers will help us to expand our campus-wide recycling program. Additionally, because of enhanced environmental awareness that the Green Team has initiated and continues to work on, we are projecting increased participation in our recycling program and hope to raise collection rates by an additional 90 tons.”

The goal of the Illinois Recycling Grants Program is to divert recyclable materials from Illinois landfills and to expand and enhance the state’s recycling collection and processing infrastructure.