Keep America Beautiful and Waste Management awarded Keep Philadelphia Beautiful and Keep Westmoreland County Beautiful grants of $10,000 each under the Think Green Grant, two of 10 grants awarded to KAB affiliates across the country.

The Waste Management Think Green Grants are part of the company’s commitment to encourage the development and sustainability of environmental solutions that improve community environments. 

These merit-based grants support projects that KAB affiliates implement locally, such as increased recycling, environmental education and community greening programs.

Keep Philadelphia Beautiful’s project goal is to educate residents of Haddington, a low-income community, in the value of composting, and to develop a fully operational community compost program.

Keep Westmoreland County Beautiful will pilot a residential recycling program to increase both participation in and volume of recycling for 500 housing units in 3 multi-family dwelling complexes throughout the county, where no recycling program currently exists.

Waste Management has supported KAB programs for several years and is active in KAB’s signature programs such as the Great American Cleanup and America Recycles Day.

This year, Waste Management also supported the KAB/Ad Council public service advertising campaign – I Want To Be Recycled – that is helping educate people about the importance of recycling and motivating the occasional recycler to become an everyday recycler.

“We applaud Waste Management for their continued support in Pennsylvania. They have been an integral partner for many years and these grants underscore their commitment to clean and beautiful communities across Pennsylvania.” said Shannon Reiter, President of Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful.

“Keep America Beautiful affiliates are singularly focused on getting members of their communities to ‘think green’ all throughout the year,” said Becky Lyons, COO of Keep America Beautiful. “Our longstanding partnership with Waste Management has been a critical component of KAB’s effort to build and sustain vibrant communities throughout the country.”

“Waste Management, KAB and its affiliates share the common goal of providing sustainable environmental, educational, recycling and beautification programs to enhance the quality of life of the communities we serve. We are pleased 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.

8/19/2013