Garland County beautification commission wins grant money

National non-profit Keep America Beautiful (KAB) recently announced that Hot Springs, Arkansas is one of 10 Keep America Beautiful affiliates to receive a $10,000 individual Think Green® Grant from Waste Management (NYSE: WM).  The Waste Management grants are awarded to encourage community sustainability through local environmental efforts.

Waste Management Think Green® Grants are awarded to KAB affiliates that have designed programs to increase local recycling efforts, expand public environmental education, or enhance local beautification and community greening initiatives. Waste Management grants have provided support for more than 100 KAB community solution-based projects over the past eight years.

Keep America Beautiful affiliates are able to maximize the potential of their community improvement projects, thanks to the support of Waste Management Think Green® Grants.  For example, the Hot Springs/Garland County Beautification Commission will work on reducing the amount of pharmaceutical and personal care waste entering the local water system; Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful in Duluth, Ga. and Greensboro Beautiful, Greensboro, N.C.  are establishing school-based recycling programs; and Keep Winston-Salem Beautiful, Winston-Salem, N.C. will plant hundreds of trees along the Newell/Massey Greenway and New Walkertown Road in East Winston-Salem as part of its next Community Roots Day.

“The goal of our grant-funded program is to develop a simple, turn-key tool that will not only help Hot Springs reduce its pharmaceutical and personal care waste, but can help other communities do the same at no cost,” HS/GCBC Executive Director Adam Roberts said.

The need for this program has become more and more clear, as medicines have been found in increasing amounts in most surface waters throughout both the U.S. and internationally. From 1999 through 2000, the U.S. Geological Survey tested 139 streams throughout the U.S. for the presence of 95 different chemicals in 1999 – 2000 and found:

§  80% of streams contained 1 or more of these chemicals

§  50% of streams contained 7 or more chemicals

§  34% of streams contained 10 or more chemicals

Of those same chemicals:

§  33 are known or suspected to be hormonally active

§  46 are pharmaceutically active (have the ability to affect living matter)

The pharmaceuticals entered the water when they were flushed down toilets, put into sinks, put into the garbage, or when humans and animals pass drugs through their bodies. Upgrading wastewater treatment plants to manage and treat medicine waste is estimated to cost billions of dollars.

“There is a need for this program in our area because we are a growing retirement destination with many gated and ungated retirement communities throughout the county, catering to a retirement age group that has a significantly higher use of medications of all types,” Roberts said.  “However, we felt that our need is only one part of a desperate statewide need. That is why we developed this project as tool that can be used at no cost by any other community in Arkansas. This will make the project more cost effective and truly “green,” as all the components will be reused extensively and repeatedly throughout Arkansas. This will benefit our community on a larger scale, the communities of our state and the community that is our environment.”

This is the third grant from outside Arkansas which the commission has received in 2012, adding tens of thousands of dollars to the Hot Springs community again this year.

Waste Management is an active supporter in many of KAB’s national programs, including the Great American Cleanup, America Recycles Day and RecycleMania.

“Keep America Beautiful applauds the work of all of this year’s grant winners, and their continuing efforts to create and sustain greener, more vibrant communities,” said Keep America Beautiful President and CEO Matthew M. McKenna. “We’re thankful to Waste Management for their ongoing partnership and transformative support of America’s communities through the Think Green Grant program.”

“Waste Management, KAB and its affiliates share the common goal of providing sustainable environmental and beautification programs that help enhance the quality of life of the communities we serve. So we are pleased once again to support KAB’s affiliate network and the vital work they do,” said Barry Caldwell, WM senior vice president and chief communications officer and past KAB chairman of the board.

The KAB affiliate 2012 Waste Management Think Green® Grant recipients include:

Greensboro Beautiful, Greensboro, N.C.

Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful, Inc., Duluth, Ga.

Hampton Clean City, Hampton, Va.

Hot Springs/GarlandCounty Beautification Commission, Hot Springs, Ark.

Keep Forth Worth Beautiful, Fort Worth, Texas

Keep Greenville County Beautiful, Greenville, S.C.

Keep Jackson Beautiful, Inc., Jackson, Miss.

Keep Pearland Beautiful, Pearland, Texas

Keep Truckee Meadows Beautiful, Reno, Nev.

Keep Winston-Salem Beautiful, Winston-Salem, N.C.

About Keep America Beautiful

Keep America Beautiful, Inc., established in 1953, is the nation's largest volunteer-based community action and education organization. This national nonprofit forms public-private partnerships and programs that engage individuals to take greater responsibility for improving their community environments. For additional information, visit www.kab.org

About Waste Management

Waste Management, based in Houston, Texas, is the leading provider of comprehensive waste management services in North America. Through its subsidiaries, the company provides collection, transfer, recycling and resource recovery, and disposal services. It is the largest residential recycler and also a leading developer, operator and owner of waste-to-energy and landfill gas-to-energy facilities in the United States. The company’s customers include residential, commercial, industrial, and municipal customers throughout North America. To learn more about Waste Management visit www.wm.com or www.thinkgreen.com.