Community Recycling Awareness Grant

Grants of up to $6,000 to Ohio local government agencies in eligible areas to promote environmentally sustainable practices. Funding is intended for events and materials that raise awareness of the importance of proper waste disposal. Proposed projects must benefit the communities of Cuyahoga County.

This grant is meant to help communities educate residents about recycling, typically through the use of printed materials such as brochures, refrigerator magnets, newsletters, and fliers or calendars. To make it easy to produce these materials and to keep recycling messages consistent across the county, the District has created customizable templates and design tools for communities to use. Funding is also offered to help communities conduct shredding events and to purchase public space recycling containers. The purpose of this grant is recycling education and awareness. Every grant application must include an educational component using the templates or design elements contained in the Cuyahoga Recycles Toolkit, which can be accessed from the District’s website.

The types of eligible projects are listed below.

1. Recycling Awareness and Education Materials: Allowable costs include design, printing, production and mailing for banners, brochures, calendars, cart tags, fliers, info cards, mailers, newsletters, postcards, recycling signs, and refrigerator magnets. Communities must use either the customizable templates or the design tools provided in the CuyahogaRecycles.org ToolKit to produce any grant funded items. The ToolKit has templates for refrigerator magnets, banners, info cards, cart tags, and signs. It also has graphics and text that can be incorporated into other items like calendars and brochures. The District can also work with any community to create a custom piece. Pre-approval of any printed or materials produced must be obtained from the District before final production.
2. Recycling or Composting Containers: Allowable costs include purchase of public space recycling, composting containers and event recycling containers, liners, and signs to be placed with the containers to indicate what should be recycled.
3. Paper Shredding Events and Special Waste Collections (i.e. E-waste and HHW events): Allowable costs include hiring a paper shredding company, signage, and event promotions such as print ads. Note: The District will not fund shred days only. Every grant application and project must include an educational component. Communities should include two quotes for paper shredding services in their application.
4. Special Projects: If your community would like to propose another type of project that is in keeping with the goals of this grant program, please contact the District to discuss before applying. The District may award a special project grant in excess of $6,000 for any unique project such as a cart tagging project that serves to help reduce recycling contamination and educate residents.