Central Vermont Solid Waste Management District to Set Up Rural Outreach

The Central Vermont Solid Waste Management District has been awarded an $89,000 federal grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development Program that will enable it to increase educational outreach in its most rural communities.

The newly awarded grant will finance a year-long series of presentations, workshops and webinars that will help residents and businesses located outside the greater Barre-Montpelier area learn to recycle, compost and understand the state’s new Universal Recycling Law.

The educational programming will provide residents in targeted towns with the knowledge they’ll need to comply with the provisions of Vermont’s Composting and Recycling Initiative, also known as Act 148 or the Universal Recycling Law. Starting in October and running through September 2016, outreach efforts will increase in the towns of Bradford, Chelsea, Fairlee, Hardwick, Orange, Plainfield, Tunbridge, Walden and Woodbury.

The timing of the outreach grant coincides with discussion and decision making on a new waste facility location that could be a full-blown materials recovery facility and a district-run composting operation or a more modest facility that would handle household hazardous waste or construction and demolition debris.

The USDA grant will assist with enabling the district to step up its outreach efforts and create posters, handouts, and videos to distribute on social media and through its website, cvswmd.org.

Cassandra Hemenway, the district’s “Zero Waste” outreach coordinator, will be the point person for the effort offering workshops, talks, training and much more on what to know about the Vermont Recycling and Composting Initiative.

Businesses or community groups interested in hosting one of Hemenway’s presentations are invited to call her at 229-9383, or 800-730-9475, (extension 102), or send an email to cassandrah@cvswmd.org.

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