City earns grants for environmental efforts

Thanks to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management and the Indiana Department of Commerce, Bloomington's trash will be converted into treasure over and over again.\nLast week, the IDEM announced it will award $50,000, for the second consecutive year to the city of Bloomington's recycling program. Part of the money will fund the purchase of a new truck for the city's curbside recycling program. An additional $5,000 from the IDOC was also donated to Bloomington for new recycling bins composed of partially recycled material.\n"These organizations realized that our city was actively promoting recycling," Toni McClure, deputy director of public works for the City of Bloomington said. "Our citizens are very committed to recycling, and we hope that the grants will inspire more residents to take part in recycling."\nMcClure said the grant will also allow the city to develop a two stream recycling program, which enables residents to sort recyclables into two distinct categories; paper materials, and containers.\n"Recycling will take less time, and it won't be so difficult to separate all products into separate bins," McClure said.\nCurrently, the IDEM is allotting $307,698 in recycling grants to help communities, organizations and schools reduce, reuse and recycle materials otherwise headed to landfills. In its history, the IDEM has awarded over $20 million through grant programs across the state.\n"These grants represent an investment in Indiana's environment," Lori Kaplan, IDEM commissioner said in a statement. "The communities who have earned the grants are already doing great things to reduce waste and to encourage citizens to get involved in reducing, reusing and recycling. This money will help them expand those efforts." \nThe Monroe County Solid Waste Management District also benefited from the recycling grants program, receiving $2,643 towards their Green Business recycling program. Melissa Kriegerfox, recycling and reuse director for Monroe County said although the grant will not have a dramatic effect on the community, it will decrease the overall costs of the program, and time and money can go elsewhere.\n"We have two truck drivers that collect recycling from 72 businesses and schools in this community," Kriegerfox said. "The cart-tipper will allow one person to dump the material, and we will be able to process it more efficiently and save warehouse space." \nPenni Sims, community director for the City of Bloomington, said she hopes the grants will allow the city to provide more convenient services for residents who regularly recycle. As of 2001, the City of Bloomington found that 52 percent of residents recycle on a regular basis.\n"It's very important that we try to reduce and reuse our trash," Sims said. "When we recycle, there is less in landfills, which makes our community and environment a better place"