Dive Brief:

• The Recycling Partnership has awarded Emmet County, MI a grant to help buy 7,000 residential recycling carts, and to earn that support, the municipality raised funds to cover the balance through a Michigan Department of Environmental Quality grant and 15 other funding sources.
• The support from The Recycling Partnership will assist the county in purchasing new recycling carts for five towns. The Partnership is also supporting the municipality with a public education campaign and cart deliveries, beginning this summer.
• Residents already have a dual-stream recycling system with containers for bottles, cartons, jugs and jars; the added carts will hold paper, boxes, and bags.

Dive Insight:

These grassroots initiatives are about collaboration—in this case between Emmet County, The Recycling Partnership, and everyone else who offered support. Such initiatives are about sustainability too, both environmental and financial, as seen in how Emmet County raised funds on its own to make sure that the relatively small grant would be a jumpstart to what will be a large-scale rollout of improvements.

While Emmet went out into the community to generate funds, it was also generating awareness about recycling, at the same time showing it wanted to take care of its own living space.

"This project is a great example of when the recycling supply chain comes together to make change, everyone wins," said Jeff Meyers, The Recycling Partnership’s development director, in a statement.

Many other communities have also gone out on their own when funding was short, finding unique partnerships and equally unique projects to join in order to improve their neighborhoods.