Keep Kimball Beautiful Awarded Two Grants

Keep Kimball Beautiful has received two grants from the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality.

The first of the grants was for $40,362 for the litter reduction and recycling with the second being $13,702 for the public education grant.

According to Keep Kimball Beautiful Director Larissa Binod the litter reduction grant will mostly be used to pay personnel and help sustain the recycle center.

"I write the grants to help fund the personnel and the supplies needed and the operating expenses to offset the cost of running the recycle center, because it's very labor intensive to sort all of the materials," Binod said.

The reason for using the funds for the recycle center personnel is one of trying to reach the optimal level of efficiency at the recycle center.

"What I've found is that when there's an appropriate amount of somebody who's being paid to focus on things and then combine those with volunteer efforts, that's when you can actually make a difference. These grants make sure that we have an amount of money set aside for the processing of the materials so that we can pay these people to process materials," Binod said.

The public education grant will be used in order to expand Keep Kimball Beautiful's efforts with Kimball schools.

"Some times with the Eco Club at the elementary level we bring them to the recycle center, and we do a project. I would like to do a few more art projects with them or a few things with a creative, educational focus," Binod said.

Another project Binod would liked to use the grant money for is to take waste audits of the city.

"I would like to see how many of the people in our community are recycling, how many people are taking advantage of the recycling center, and how many people are out there who would recycle if I get them the information they need. Some times information is what is needed to call to action," Binod said.

Binod is very grateful for the contribution from the Nebraska Department of Environmental Equality and emphasizes the importance of their involvement for the recycle center.

"I apply for these grants every year. They are what funds our recycle center. We could not have the services we have here in our community without the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality's participation and partnership. The personnel cost would eat up all of the profit from the recycling. NDEQ makes recycling available to our county," Binod said.