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What is a Recycling Grant?
A recycling grant is funding or support for your organization to help start and/or continue to run a recycling program. They aim to make recycling infrastructure more accessible to organizations and to help them function effectively. Grants are great for multiple reasons: predominantly being that they are practically free money and can provide you with support and advice on your initiative.
So how do you get a Recycling Grant?
1. Look for Grant Opportunities
Recycling grant opportunities are offered depending on many variables. They can differ by location or vary depending on the industry that your organization is in.
Certain regions offer specific grants because of initiatives that they want to be acted on or improved. For example, certain provinces want to improve their environmental footprint and decrease the amount of waste that is sent to landfills within the province. They tackle this initiative by offering grants to businesses and organizations within the province. These grants, such as the Environmental Research & Education Foundation (EREF), is one of the largest sources of funding for solid waste research in North America and focuses on increasing sustainable solid waste practices. This helps improve the participating companies, municipalities, and states’ recycling goals- while also achieving yours!
There are many resources available online to investigate what recycling grants are being offered. Be sure to check out CleanRiver’s list of grants available by country, province, and state. You can also find them by looking at government websites, or even your town website as they will often post announcements about available grants in the region.
2. Identify Grants That Align with Your Goals
Once you have discovered some recycling grants that appeal to you, the next step is to be selective on which grants align with your organization and community’s sustainability goals. Whatever your recycling initiative may be, you want to ensure that the grant you select will be the right fit and will properly support you!
Whether your goal is to become more sustainable, decrease the amount of waste your facility is sending to landfills, or to save costs that can be attained through an effective recycling program- select the grant that will best suit your needs. That way you can make the most out of the grant funds and get the most bang for your buck!
For example, if your goal is to eliminate the amount of water bottles and soda cans littering your community in California, we suggest you check out CalRecycle’s Beverage Container Recycling Grant. This grant annually issues up to $1,500,000 for initiatives that support the recycling of beverage containers for counties, cities, educational institutions, non-profit organizations, and qualifying Indigenous Peoples.
3. Grant Eligibility
Before applying to the grant, make sure that your organization is eligible to fill out the application and apply. Most grants involve prerequisites and guidelines to ensure that the grant’s purpose is being fulfilled and targeting the right initiative.
The TD Friends of the Environment Foundation Grant supports a wide range of environmental initiatives, with a primary focus on environmental education and green space programs. Grants such as this one are perfect for schools who are looking to revitalize their schoolyard or local parks!
You can check to see if you are eligible and qualify for participating in the grant process just by looking at the grant description OR by taking a look at the application form where most often there is a section written out to state the eligibility prerequisites. Eligibility can depend on your industry or on the initiative. For example, there are many grants that have stipulations to their program stating that a component of the organization’s recycling effort must incorporate some form of education and awareness to recycling. These are especially prominent in recycling grants for community projects and schools.
Other eligibility factors might include whether your organization is privately or publicly owned, a profit or non-for-profit, and sometimes (but not always!) eligibility is limited to the amount of funding that is available. The foundations who supply the grants often choose multiple organizations and programs to help instead of selecting only one organization to use their whole grant budget on. Our recommendation to those seeking recycling grants is to find out how much funding is available and consider whether your request for funding is feasible within that amount.
4. Complete and Submit Your Application
The next step is to carefully fill out your application for a recycling grant. Pay attention to what information is being asked from you and be sure to dedicate enough time to fill out the application properly.
A helpful tip when it comes to the application process is to get in contact with the foundation providing the grant or even better- to get in contact with a previous recipient of the grant! They can help you with the application process if you come across any questions or need advice.
A critical component of the application process is to submit your grant applications on time! Sometimes applications for recycling grants require multiple submissions over multiple dates, so be sure not to miss any deadlines!
5. Regularly Follow-Up
Finally, after completing all the steps involving the application process of a recycling grant, it is time to wait for your application to be reviewed and accepted. Frequently check on the status of your submission to make sure it was properly submitted, and that the organization hasn’t notified you requesting any additional information. They will likely reach out to you if your application has been accepted and your request for a recycling grant was approved.
Following these steps will help you and your organization make the most out of your recycling grant pursuit! Recycling grants are an amazing resource and an opportunity not to pass up!
If you have any additional questions that weren’t answered in this blog post please call us at 10866-484-8979 or email solutions@cleanriver.com.
For more tips on launching a successful recycling program at your facility, check out our blogs:
- 4 Tips To Launch A Successful Recycling Program At Your Facility
- How Much Does A Recycling Program Cost? 5 Things To Watch For
- Why Is Recycling Important For A Business? 5 Surprising Benefits
Or download our recycling grants eBook!
CleanRiver Recycling provides a variety of innovative, flexible and customizable recycling solutions. To determine the right solution to meet your needs, use the CleanRiver product selector.
If you have additional questions that weren’t answered in this blog post please call us at 1-866-479-4038 or email solutions@cleanriver.com.
