Another $100,000 is up for grabs in an effort to jump-start the capture of hard-to-recycle plastics.
Dow Chemical Co. and Keep America Beautiful are again offering a total of $100,000 in grants to help communities establish Hefty EnergyBag programs.
That effort seeks to divert plastics that are difficult and rarely captured such as chip bags and juice pouches.
Hefty, a program sponsor, has products known for their orange packaging and branding. So orange bags are used to collect these difficult plastics and help segregate them away from other recyclables. The filled orange bags are included with traditional recyclables collected at curbside, but then removed from the recycling stream at material recovery facilities for special processing.
Communities interested applying for a Hefty EnergyBag grant can visit www.kab.org/hefty-energy-bag-program. More information about the overall effort is at www.heftyenergybag.com.
A total of two grants, for $50,000 each, were awarded last year to Cobb County, Ga., and Boise, Idaho, to establish programs.
"By collaborating with organizations and communities nationwide, we are increasing plastics recovery, reducing the amount of waste going into landfills and advancing the vision of a circular economy," said Jon Pyper, associate director of sustainability and advocacy at Dow, in a statement.
The program has collected more than 44,500 EnergyBags containing plastics since 2014, diverting 24 tons of material from landfills, organizers said.
An original pilot program in Citrus Heights, Calif., proved the concept and diverted plastics to create fuel. The Omaha, Neb., area was the first community to institute a wider scale permanent program that diverts the material to energy recovery.