Starkville is banking on an MDEQ grant to get more green trash bags on the street.
The city was awarded a $50,000 grant from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality earlier this year to be used for its recycling program. Half of the money will be spent on the signature green bags, which citizens fill with recyclables, while the remainder funds an advertising campaign aimed at getting more citizens involved.
Ward 3 Alderman Eric Parker said the bags will be “a little thicker and hold up better” this time around. He said the city has also been awarded a separate $50,000 grant from MDEQ to go toward buying a new garbage truck especially for recycling. That grant should cover approximately half the cost of a new truck. The city sanitation department currently uses standard trucks to run the recycling route.
Approximately 1,800 households and businesses participate in the recycling program, but a two-tiered campaign will target demographics identified by Sanitation Department Supervisor Sharon Boyd — including college students and the elderly — most likely to get on board.
Broadcast Media in Starkville will focus on the television half of the equation. CEO Robbie Coblentz said Wednesday filming will begin in the next several weeks on four commercials promoting the recycling program. They will be aired by Metrocast on channels such as ESPN, CNN and Fox News beginning in April and running through the end of the year.
Another Starkville media company, Small Pond Graphics, has been tapped to develop a brochure and a logo for the recycling program. The logo will be featured on the green bags as well as 10,000 tri-fold brochures which will be placed at high-traffic city buildings, such as the Starkville Electric Department, over the next four to six weeks.
Starkville”s recycling program is less than two years old and has kept approximately 235 tons of material out of the local landfill during that time.
A company called Starkville Recycling received the city”s recyclables, collected by the Sanitation Department, for the first year and sorted the materials at no cost to the city. When Starkville Recycling owner Stan Shurden asked the board of aldermen to begin paying for the service, the city sought bids. Blue Box turned in the sole bid, but the company was purchased by Mississippi Industrial Waste before a contract was in place.
The city again sought bids and awarded the contract to the low bidder Starkville Waste Management. Short-term contracts were struck with Blue Box, under its new management, Starkville Recycling and Waste Management in the interim to prevent an interruption in services to recycling participants.
Parker touted the ease of participating in Starkville”s recycling program, pointing out that participants need not separate their recyclables. He”s hoping that convenience, when better explained, will attract more recyclers.
Jason Browne was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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