Did you celebrate Earth Hour by turning out your lights on Saturday evening? Well, here’s another way you can help the planet and get your community on board! Baltimore Community Foundation (BCF) is partnering with the Mayor’s Cleaner, Greener Baltimore Initiative to offer grants to community organizations, Community Relations Councils, and neighborhood umbrella groups who want to get the word out about Baltimore City’s recycling program.

The City of Baltimore anticipates that significant education and outreach will need to be done to help residents take advantage of recycling opportunities, including the proposed One Plus One solid waste pick-up schedule of one day a week trash collection plus one day a week recycling collection.

Goals of this grant are to:

• Get more people recycling through neighborhood driven efforts

• Find out how many more people are recycling as a result of the neighborhood driven efforts

• Get people comfortable with recycling

• Provide recycling education to residents

• Provide accessibility to recycling bins if necessary

If you have a great idea for getting your neighborhood engaged in recycling, contact Aisha Samples, Program Assistant at BCF, at asamples@bcf.org or 410-332-4172 ext. 145. But hurry! The deadline for initial applications is Monday, April 6.

Interested in doing more to promote recycling in your community? Here are some more ways you can make a difference:

• Identify up to 5 households in your community who do not recycle who would be willing to try with the help of a “recycling coach”. Contact Hope Williams at hope.williams@baltimorecity.gov if you are interested in doing this;

• Discuss recycling at your community association meetings and include information about recycling in communications with your community. Recycling literature is available from the Initiative;

• Talk to neighborhood stores about being a bin sales site. Interested stores should contact Hope Williams;

• Sell recycling bins. BCF has a loan fund available for community groups that would like to purchase a large quantity of recycling bins to make it easier for your residents to purchase the bins.