EPA's consumer recycling education and outreach (REO) grant program will fund a range of projects that will increase waste prevention activities, increase the collection of recyclable materials and…

EPA's consumer recycling education and outreach (REO) grant program will fund a range of projects that will increase waste prevention activities, increase the collection of recyclable materials and program participation rates, and decrease contamination of the recycling stream, fund projects that focus on commonly recycled materials such as municipal solid waste (e.g., plastics, aluminum, paper, glass, etc.), including food waste and organics, and/or fund projects and provide tools and technical assistance that will lead to long-term, sustained change, benefits, and support beyond the life of the grant. The purpose of this award is to enhance the walking mountains science center's efforts to meet the REO grants elements. Walking mountains will hire several staff members that will be working directly on this project. They will purchase a recycling trailer that can be placed in neighbors without curbside recycling. There will also be a focus to provide marketing and advertising education in both spanish and english to increase recycling throughout the community. Activities:walking mountains will perform the following activities: creating and distributing marketing materials to help increase diversion rates. These materials will be produced based off of the evaluation of community interviews and surveys that walking mountains will complete using non-REO funding. Alongside with purchasing a recycling trailer that can be moved to different places within the community, they will hold several cleanup and zero-waste events where they will provide educational materials. IT also includes the training of several personnel positions and provide marketing and advertising to educate the public. The objective of this project is to amplify current recycling programs ensuring everyone in eagle county understands where, why, and how to recycle and has equitable access to do so. A large focus of this project will ensure that latinx communities are provided accommodations to recycling resources and are being educated in the process. Subrecipient:no subawards are included in this assistance agreement.outcomes:walking mountains will hire a bilingual staff member which will help to empower the latinx community members with access to knowledge and materials. The hiring of other staff members will assist in the marketing and distribution of these materials that will be in both english and spanish. These materials plus the training of additional volunteers to share these materials will help to increase the county diversion rates, reduce contamination, provide more access to recycling drop-off sites, and improve environmental justice. The intended beneficiaries will include the citizens of avon, colorado as well as the entire population in eagle county. This will also drop barriers for those citizens living in latinx communities in eagle county.