Indiana awards $1 million to expand recycling operations

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 6, 2017

Indiana awards $1 million to expand recycling operations

INDIANAPOLIS – Eight Indiana recyclers have received grant funding totaling $1 million from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management’s (IDEM’s) Recycling Market Development Program (RMDP) to expand recycling in Indiana. The efforts are part of a combined $2 million commitment to operations that will benefit the environment and result in the creation of new jobs.

Following is information about the recipients and their projects: 

• City of Shelbyville, Shelby County – $118,250 to initiate its first curbside recycling program which will include collecting commingled recycling products at potentially 5,500 homes within the city. Recyclables will be collected by the City of Shelbyville Street and Sanitation Department employees on a weekly basis. Currently, the Sanitation Department provides curbside trash service to all city residents with a voluntary paper recycling program. Their goal is to provide all 19,121 residents of Shelbyville with a full service, convenient program to exponentially increase recycling participation and to significantly lower the amount of refuse taken to the landfill.
  
  
• East-Terra Plastics LLC, Marion County – $250,000 to initiate a statewide agricultural plastics collection, processing and marketing project. Agricultural plastics or “ag plastics” covers a wide variety of products and plastic types including pesticide and herbicide handheld containers, film, nursery pots, large plastic drums, and intermediate bulk container (IBC) totes. East-Terra’s role will be to develop an “ag plastic” wash/grind processing line, an IBC tote and drum wash line, and hold statewide collection events.
  
  
• Indiana Recycling Coalition and Strategic Materials, Marion County – $22,585 to be used for equipment, management services and outreach materials toward initiating a proposed metro area glass recycling project to collect more high-quality, uncontaminated glass from bars and restaurants within four strategic and popular business districts in the region. The goal of the project is to substantially expand glass recycling in Central Indiana. 
  
  
• Lake County Solid Waste Management District, Lake County – $179,150 to purchase equipment to start Indiana’s first publicly operated pre-consumer food waste composting program. The facility proposes to compost approximately 60 tons of pre-consumer food waste and 18,000 tons of leaves annually. U.S. EPA estimates food waste makes up 21 percent of the municipal solid waste stream. The project is expected to bring in revenues of approximately $120,000 per year.
  
  
• Monroeville Box, Pallet & Wood Products LLC, Allen County – $85,547 to purchase equipment that will allow the company to become a zero waste company. The new equipment will allow the entire recycling process, from waste acquisition to a salable product, to be conducted in a single recycling stream that requires no further processing before the product is sold to the final customer.  An estimated 2,011 tons of recycled material annually will be used in manufacturing instead of being sent to the landfill.
  
  
• Plastic Recycling 2, Marion County – $250,000 toward the purchase of an extruder and screen changer which will allow the company to begin recycling foam and rigid plastic food containers including cups, plates and more. This improvement will divert these products from landfills and repurpose them by putting them through the company’s proven extrusion process.
  
  
• Rumpke, Jackson County – $87,425 to develop a recycling collection point at the Rumpke Medora Landfill. The project will include the construction of a 5,540 square foot pad with an enclosure to protect a horizontal baler as well as loose, single stream recycling services for both residential and commercial entities in adjacent counties. Rumpke will provide a compactor unit with a receiver box and a horizontal baler with infeed conveyor to support this project. 
  
  
• Secure Core Solutions, Marion County – $7,043 for the purchase of a baler to help capture recyclable materials that can be purchased by processors. This equipment will allow staff to manage materials and learn an environmental trade while assisting the Help the World Foundation better manage their recyclables. Secure Core Solutions provides recycling and secure document destruction services to customers nationwide and is a NAID and R2/RIOS certified e-waste recycler.

 

About the RMDP Grants Program

The Recycling Market Development Program (http://www.in.gov/idem/recycle/2358.htm) was established in the early 1990s to better manage solid waste by developing markets for recycling. Municipalities, non-profit organizations and public and private businesses located and doing business in Indiana are eligible to apply for funding. Eligible candidates may seek a grant starting at $1,000 and up to $500,000, with a 50 percent required match.

About IDEM

 

IDEM (www.idem.IN.gov) implements federal and state regulations regarding the environment. Through compliance assistance, incentive programs and educational outreach, the agency encourages and aids businesses and citizens in protecting Hoosiers and our environment.  

-30- 

Media contact: 

 

Barry Sneed

Public Information Officer

O: (317) 232-8596

C: (317) 519-3891

BSneed@idem.IN.gov