May 22, 2007 Contact: Sue Baker
For Immediate Release 738-2000, ext. 6205
RIRRC awards city nearly $12,000 for new recycling initiative
WARWICK – Mayor Scott Avedisian announced today that the city will receive an $11,863 grant from the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation in order to offset start-up costs for a new recycling initiative that will be implemented in the upcoming fiscal year.
In a measure meant to improve recycling efforts in municipal buildings, Avedisian authorized the Recycling and Sanitation Division to take over trash and recycling collection from the contractor who currently collects the materials at Warwick City Hall, Buttonwoods Community Center, the City Hall Annex, the Pilgrim Senior Center and the Police Station.
The estimated cost to implement the program is $195,000. The RIRRC grant will be used to purchase five six-yard recycling dumpsters; 60 green, 95-gallon carts for paper; 40 blue, 95-gallon carts for bottles and cans; and 10 source separation carts, which will be placed in seven sites.
The funds are coming from RIRRC’s FY07 Competitive Municipal grant program, which is meant to support new programs or initiatives that are undertaken by cities and towns to increase the quantity and improve the quality of material delivered to the Johnston facility.
To date, Warwick has received close to $740,000 in grants from RIRRC during Avedisian’s tenure as mayor. Nearly $700,000 was awarded to implement the various phases of the automated trash and recycling system and another $15,000 to offset costs to develop the Recycling and Sanitation website.
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