Green Park of the Year

Congratulations to the Friends of Natural Bridge State Park for being our Green Grants Award #30!  They will receive a $1,000 grant to be used to enhance their recycling program!

Natural Bridge State Park gets by with a little help from their friends!  Since 2023, Friends of Natural Bridge State Park have supported the sustainability and recycling programs at the park, which welcomes close to 200,000 diverse guest each year.

In May of 2023 Natural Bridge State Park converted an old, unusable, floor mounted HVAC unit into the “Recycle Right Center.”  The Recycle Center has labeled cans for separated recycling collections, where guests and staff are encouraged to place their recyclable goods into the appropriate container. With the help of informative signage, guests are educated on the initiatives and recycling programs at the park, which include: plastics 1 through 7, mixed paper/cardboard, aluminum/steel cans, food/beverage glass, and food scraps. The recycling efforts are successful, having collected 904 pounds of glass that was transported to EarthMagic to be crushed into sand; 1,000 pounds of plastic film that was sent to the NexTrex Community Program, resulting in two Trex benches for the park; and composted 375 pounds of food waste that will be used throughout the park for landscaping and erosion control. While collecting aluminum and steel cans, park staff and volunteers pulled scrap metal buried deep in the woods. The scrap metal profited the Friends Group over $2,400.00.

Building on their success with recycling in the park, Green Grants funds will used to create an additional Recycle Right Center to be located in the Interactive Class Room. This space host hundreds of people each year for trainings, interpretive programs, and other activities. Currently, guests are encouraged to recycle in the classroom, but there is no separated recycling bins on an adequate scale for large groups.  This results in mixed recycling, which has a high cost for the parks.  The new, additional Recycle Right Center will have separate bins, and will streamline the amount of recycling, with an anticipated 25% increase for their recycling program.

This year Natural Bridge State Park was awarded the Virginia Green Travel “Green Park of the Year” award and has become know locally and state wide for their commitment to sustainability and recycling.  Expanding their successful recycling program to include another “Recycle Right Center” will surely help keep Virginia even more beautiful!