Create a swap shop at the town transfer station.Town of Old Saybrook/Rotary Club - $6,500.94 – Town of Old Saybrook, Middlesex County.Artist led educational programs for creative reuse using used art supplies and coordination of swap events.$7,125.00 – Greater New Haven, New Haven County Create a swap shack at the town transfer station including signage, outreach, and educational materials and public space recycling bins.Hebron Green Committee – $10,112.75 – Town of Hebron, Tolland County.Includes increasing awareness of safety of consuming recovered food. Expand food recovery by increasing outreach to new business donors/partners and increase deliveries of recovered food to new sectors and communities.Haven’s Harvest - $13,062.50 – Greater New Haven, New Haven County.
Funds to purchase a van and online software to increase amount and efficiency of recovery food for human consumption, including the development of new products linking with job skill training and employment.Center for Food Equity and Economic Development/The Council of Churches of Greater Bridgeport – $14,250.00 – Greater Bridgeport, Fairfield County.Statewide building deconstruction education, outreach and technical assistance for municipalities and businesses engaged in demolition.Lee Sawyer Community Waste Reduction & Recycling Grant recipients include: Congratulations to the grant recipients, and thank you for all you’re doing to help Connecticut realize a more modern and sustainable waste system.” My appreciation to the RecycleCT Foundation Board for naming this grant in honor of Lee and for prioritizing these important projects. “Lee was a champion of innovation and sustainability, from his involvement in the creation of RecycleCT, to advocating for strong sustainable management programs to help Connecticut including the Connecticut Coalition for Sustainable Materials Management. “I am thrilled to see the innovative programs focused on waste reduction, reuse, recycling and diversion that received funding under the Lee Sawyer Grant Program,” DEEP Commissioner Katie Dykes said. We had seven strong proposals with waste prevention or reuse initiatives that were chosen to receive over $66,000 and recycling and diversion initiatives will receive over $83,000.” “We wanted to encourage more waste reduction and reuse applications, which are often harder projects to implement,” said Kim O’Rourke, RecycleCT Board member. RecycleCT funded seven reduction/reuse projects focused on funding recovery of food for human consumption, creative reuse of scrap materials in the arts, and economic development projects engaging in skill development with recovered food making new products and deconstruction of buildings for contractors as well as eight projects that focus on recycling from expanding municipal composting, educating residents about recycling and job skill development with worm composting. Thirty-three applications were received requesting over $393,000. With waste reduction and reuse set higher in the solid waste hierarchy, RecycleCT chose to split the grant RFP into two categories: Waste Reduction and Reuse and Recycling and Diversion.
But not everyone understands how to prevent waste or increase their reuse activities. Most of us can recite the 3-R’s: reduce, reuse, and recycle. Projects should help communities build lasting capacity to either reduce waste, reuse/divert materials from the waste stream, or increase public awareness of waste reduction and recycling. The grant program is intended to fund projects that reduce or eliminate solid waste at its source, promote sustainable reuse of existing materials, promote recycling of materials not currently being captured, or increase diversion of Connecticut’s mandatory and non-mandatory recyclables and organics from incineration or landfill. Lee was incredibly dedicated to the mission of DEEP, and was instrumental in the creation of the RecycleCT Foundation, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote the importance of managing materials more sustainably through waste reduction, reuse, recycling and composting. The grant program was created earlier this year in memory of former DEEP Chief of Staff Lee Sawyer, who passed away on Oct. (HARTFORD)-The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) and the RecycleCT Foundation are pleased to announce more than $150,000 in grants awarded to local municipalities and organizations in the inaugural grant round of the Lee Sawyer Community Waste Reduction & Recycling Grant program, which supports waste reduction and reuse in addition to recycling and composting efforts. RecycleCT Foundation Awards More than $150,000 in Funding Through Lee Sawyer Community Waste Reduction Grant Program Grants Awarded to Projects That Will Increase Waste Prevention, Reuse, Recycling and Composting in Connecticut