The Indiana Department of Environmental Management’s Recycling Market Development Program recently awarded 12 organizations with more than $1.4 million in grants to expand recycling efforts.
Rumpke of Indiana, one of the recipients, plans to the use its $175,000 grant to expand the company’s Medora Recycling Center at the Medora Landfill at 546 S. County Road 870W. The project is designed to increase capacity and bolster recycling opportunities for rural communities and businesses in Jackson and surrounding counties, according to a news release from IDEM.
The center accepts residential and commercial recyclables, such as paper, glass and plastic bottles, metal cans and cartons. It features a 5,540-square-foot concrete pad, which is used for single-stream recyclables and source-separated corrugated containers, and there is a conveyor line that feeds the recyclables to a manual sorting station, where contaminated items are removed.
IDEM Commissioner Bruno Pigott said the efforts of the 12 organizations receiving the grants will help the state move closer to the statewide recycling goal of 50%.
By fostering recycling markets in the state through grants, IDEM supports the growth of the state’s private recycling sector infrastructure.
The 12 projects are expected to produce a total investment of more than $15.1 million and help create 47 jobs. They also are expected to increase the amount of municipal solid waste, construction and demolition debris, and wood waste that is recycled by almost 85,000 tons.
For information about the grant program, including upcoming grant opportunities visit IDEM’s website at in.gov/idem/.
Money for the program comes from the recycling promotion and assistance fund, an account generated by a per-ton fee on solid waste disposed at Indiana landfills. The fund supports source reduction, reuse, recycling, and composting to prevent solid waste from being permanently disposed.