By Kim Siebert MacPhail
Gretchen Carey, the Town’s part-time Recycling Coordinator, is putting the finishing touches on a grant application to be submitted the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) that would provide funding for her to spend one day a week for the next two years in the Bedford Public Schools, helping to improve recycling systems and practices. “There are at least six different categories you can apply in for a grant to help improve recycling rates. Schools are just one of them,” Carey explained in a recent phone interview. “Knock on wood we get the grant but even if we don’t, the discussions and steps we’ve already taken to be eligible to apply have brought the Town together over the cause and resulted in a greater commitment to recycling.”
The grant application requires around ten different signatures from different Town departments, Carey said, including Fire, DPW and, of course, the schools. Some of Bedford four schools are already advanced in their awareness and worked hard to perfect their recycling systems while others need assistance to overcome obstacles.
Carey has started working with administrators, teachers, students, and custodial staff, even before the results of the grant application are known. She has been particularly impressed with one of the schools’ custodians who recently asked her to provide a large Dumpster-like bin, specifically for all of the cardboard that is now being recycled instead of trashed.
“There are four areas I’ll be dealing with in the schools if we get the grant,” Carey explained. “Awareness, training, making the choices more obvious, and getting students more involved….I think, based on some of the work we’ve already done, there will be a big jump in recycling through these efforts. I have high hopes.”
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