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Press Release: Orange County Recycling Quality Improvement Program Selected for Grant

This press release was initially published by Orange County Government Florida.

Partnership with National Organizations Will Help Recycling Education

Orange County, Fla. (March 12, 2019) – Today the Orange County Board of County Commissioners approved a grant agreement with The Recycling Partnership to enhance Orange County’s recycling quality improvement program through education, outreach, access and training opportunities.

The Recycling Partnership, a national nonprofit organization that provides grants and technical support, will award Orange County $193,000 plus an additional $150,000 in staff and resource support. For its part, Orange County Utilities agreed to dedicate $30,000 of staff time resources toward advancing the recycling quality improvement program.

“Orange County is proud to be selected to receive this funding support from The Recycling Partnership for our recycling efforts,” said Orange County Mayor Jerry L. Demings. “We’re committed to sustainability in Orange County, and these grant funds will help us better educate our residents on how to properly recycle.”

The County’s recycling quality improvement program started last summer by inspecting recycling carts, tagging and providing feedback to customers on how to recycle right. Wrong items, such as plastic bags, pizza boxes, clothing and other non-recyclable items, impact how much material can be recycled in the County program. Unincorporated Orange County residents are encouraged to Think 5: only recycle plastic, metal and glass containers, cardboard and paper. When in doubt, leave it out!

“The Recycling Partnership is proud to work with Orange County and the Green Blue Institute to increase recycling in the community by sharing with residents what can and cannot be recycled,” said Jill Martin, The Recycling Partnership’s Vice President of Technical Assistance. “Our goal is to help Orange County have a long-term impact by showing residents that recycling is as easy as throwing things away. When we recycle more, we save money and live, work and play in healthier communities.”

Results from this partnership will be shared by Orange County, The Recycling Partnership and Green Blue Institute with other Florida communities at a training workshop tentatively scheduled for late 2019. The overall program is being supported by a grant from The Coca-Cola Foundation.

Information about recycling in Orange County: www.ocfl.net/recycles. Inquiries about the recycling program can be sent via email to Solid.Waste@ocfl.net or the Solid Waste Hotline at 407-836-6601.

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About The Recycling Partnership: The Recycling Partnership is a national nonprofit organization that leverages corporate partner funding to transform recycling for good in states, cities and communities all across America. As the only organization in the country that engages the full recycling supply chain from the corporations that manufacture products and packaging to local governments charged with recycling to industry end markets, haulers, material recovery facilities, and converters; The Recycling Partnership positively impacts recycling at every step in the process. The Recycling Partnership has served more than 1,000 communities and counting with best-in-class tools, data, resources and technical support, helped place 500,000 recycling carts, reached 50 million households, and helped companies and communities invest more than $37 million in recycling infrastructure. In doing so, The Recycling Partnership has created meaningful social, environmental, and economic change. By the end of 2019, the nonprofit change agent estimates it will have diverted 230 million pounds of new recyclables, saved 465 million gallons of water, avoided 250 thousand metric tons of GHG, and driven significant reductions in targeted contamination rates.

About The Coca-Cola Foundation: The Coca-Cola Foundation is the global philanthropic arm of The Coca-Cola Company. Since its inception in 1984, the Foundation has awarded more than $1 billion in grants to support sustainable community initiatives around the world. For more information about The Coca-Cola Foundation, please visit www.coca-colacompany.com/our-company/the-coca-cola-foundation.

Photo Caption: Left to right, Jennifer Baugher with Coca-Cola Florida, Marchelle Allen, Cindy Harpel and Allen Cole with Orange County Utilities, Shannon Sellman with Coca-Cola corporate, Alita Kane with The Recycling Partnership and David Gregory with Orange County Utilities, officially kickoff working together and a $193,000 grant approved by the Orange County Board of County Commissioners that will give a boost to the recycling cart tagging program, which educates residents on how to recycle right.