City receives $50,000 grant for recycling program

Recycling symbol.jpg [1]

By KELLY DANIELS
citybeat@bellsouth.net [2]

For its free curbside recycling program, the City of Starkville has been awarded a $50,000 grant from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality.
The Starkville Sanitation and Environmental Services Department will use the grant to fund bigger, thicker recycling bags and public operations, department head Sharon Boyd reported to the Board of Aldermen Tuesday night.
“We are very excited and very ready to use these dollars,” Boyd added.
Starkville’s curbside recycling program started in October of 2009.
According to a press release from the MDEQ, the grant became available the same year through the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
The MDEQ also awarded Oxford, Pascagoula, Quitman, Pearl and Calhoun County grants to expand their recycling programs.