Maricopa County:
The ADEQ awarded $370,386 to fund recycling programs in Maricopa County. The county itself will receive $188,736 to provide recycling to rural and unincorporated areas through supervised residential dropoff of household hazardous waste and 11 other recyclable materials including aluminum, plastics, metals, cardboard and paper at county transfer stations. The funds will be used to purchase containers and compactors at four stations in Aguila, Cave Creek, New River and Rainbow Valley.
City of Mesa:
The ADEQ is awarding $61,000 to fund recycling in the City of Mesa. The grant will fund "Recycling for the Masses," a program to recycle waste at Mesa public schools and to provide recycling at the Hohokam Stadium, the winter home of the Chicago Cubs. The funds will be used to purchase recycling barrels and containers, signs, promotional materials and mailers. This grant is funded by the Waste Reduction Assistance program, for projects devoted to waste reduction, recycling, and composting.
City of Tempe:
Tempe will get $59,800 from the ADEQ is to fund recycling in Tempe. The grant will fund the creation of a 24-foot recycling exhibition trailer with interactive videos, displays and educational materials to promote recycling. The trailer will be present at the 128 major outdoor events the City sponsors, with a total estimated audience of 650,000 people. This grant is funded by ADEQ's Waste Reduction Initiative Through Education program, for projects that educate the citizens of Arizona about waste reduction, recycling and composting.
Town of Fountain Hills:
The ADEQ will award $19,000 to fund recycling in the Town of Fountain Hills. The grant is for a household hazardous waste collection event. The funds will be used to hire a contractor to conduct the event.
University of Arizona:
The ADEQ has awarded a $176,150 Water Quality Improvement Education Grant to the University of Arizona's Master Watershed Steward Program (MWSP) to enhance watershed education statewide. MWSP was created to educate and train Arizona residents to serve as volunteers in protecting, restoring, monitoring and conserving watersheds. The grant will bring in more partners and expand the scope of the program throughout Arizona. The program offers more than 50 hours of coursework on basic watershed science and covers general information about what watersheds are and how they function. The stewards learn about hydrology, geology and soil types, Arizona's climate, water quality and quantity, water management and mapping.
ADEQ has funded MWSP continuously since its inception in 2004 but this is the first year that MWSP has been funded through ADEQ's competitive grant program. In prior years, the program was funded through an Interagency Service Agreement. ADEQ's Water Quality Improvement Grant Program administers funds from the federal Environmental Protection Agency for implementation of education projects such as the Master Watershed Stewards Program, which ultimately reduces non-point source pollution in Arizona. Non-point source pollution is polluted runoff from many different sources and remains the nation's largest source of water quality problems. It occurs when rainfall, snowmelt or irrigation runs over land through the ground, picks up pollutants and deposits them into rivers, lakes and coastal waters or introduces them into the ground.
Hualapai Tribe:
That ADEQ has awarded $10,000 to fund an expanded recycling program for members of the Hualapai Tribe in northwestern Arizona.
The grant will be used to recycle more bottles, cans, office paper, cardboard and other household materials on the Hualapai Indian Reservation. The funds will be used to buy recycling bins for office workspaces, homes and central dropoff locations. This grant also will be used to inform the public about the importance of recycling through flyers and articles in the local Peach Springs newspaper. The grant is funded by ADEQ's Waste Reduction Assistance program for projects devoted to waste reduction, recycling and composting.