Clean Valley Council WINS $1,000 for Recycling!

The Clean Valley Council has been awarded a $1,000 grant in the Plastic Bag Recycling Category.  The KVB grant program focuses greater resources and attention on individual localities throughout the Commonwealth and how they are addressing the issues of litter prevention, recycling, waste reduction, beautification and education. In honor of Earth Month, Keep Virginia Beautiful (KVB) is awarding “30 Grants In 30 Days” in April, 2011.

Plastic bags are one of the top sources of litter in the greater Roanoke Valley which includes the City of Roanoke, County of Roanoke, Town of Vinton, and the City of Salem.  In recent months, the Clean Valley Council (CVC) was asked to step in and help solve the plastic bag litter issue.  CVC has a five prong attack planned to combat this issue: 1. Area wide clean-up days with an emphasis on plastic bags (counting them and pictures of them as the Valley’s main litter source), 2. Public outreach and education using their new slogan “Bag It, is your life too plastic?”, 3. Distribution of reusable shopping bags, 4. Development of K-12 educational programs, and 5. Surveying the local retailers to determine the need for additional plastic bag recycling collection centers.  These funds will assist the CVC with this new plastic bag recycle/reuse/reduction campaign and help the residents and merchants clean-up the greater Roanoke Valley.  For more information on the Clean Valley Council or their project, please contact Cristina Siegel at 540-345-5523 or [email protected].

The mission at Keep Virginia Beautiful is to engage and unite Virginians to improve our natural and scenic environment.  Our goals include becoming the leading statewide voice, providing a framework for improved communication and collaboration, cultivating and supporting sustainable programs, and engaging citizens by linking them to volunteer opportunities and information through these 5 impact areas:  Litter Prevention, Waste Reduction, Recycling,Beautification, and Environmental Education.

KVB provided the opportunity for government, non-profit and/or service organizations in Virginia to apply for one of (30) $1,000 grants in three different categories: 10 grants for plastic bag reduction and recycling, 10 grants for cigarette litter prevention, and 10 grants for community greening and beautification.  These grants are made possible by KVB’s partners, Walmart and Waste Management.