Page 44 - Plastics News October 2016

INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Public-private groups win funds to clean up NY, NJ waterways
Seven community projects have been awarded a total
of $365,000 in federal grants to keep plastic out of
waterways in New York and New Jersey. The public-private
partnerships, under the banner of the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency’s Trash Free Waters initiative, are a
collection of diverse groups approached to combat plastic
marine debris.Awarded through a competitive grant
process run by New England Interstate Water Pollution
Control Commission (NEIWPCC), all the projects are
aimed at keeping plastics out of local lakes, rivers and
oceans and supporting the Trash Free Waters initiative's
goal of reducing the volume of plastic trash entering
fresh and marine water environments, approaching zero-
loading into U.S. waters within 10 years.
The Hudson River Foundation/NY-NJ Harbor and Estuary
Program, in cooperation with Montclair State University’s
Passaic River Institute will receive $67,693 to collect data
on how litter enters local waterways, devise strategies to
reduce it and develop a community outreach program, all
focused on “floatable” trash, particularly plastics.
Cafeteria Culture, a project of the Fund for the City
of New York, will use its $60,111 grant to help fund its
Community Arts+Media school-community partnership
project. Students at participating schools work with
intergenerational teams to conduct trash studies and
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cleanups, launch and run rewards systems with local
businesses and develop creative social media and video
messaging about curbing trash.
Reducing the amount of single-use plastics — bags, bottles,
cups, lids, straws and plates — in the waste stream from
hotels, restaurants and campgrounds along Long Island’s
North Fork is the focus of The Product Stewardship
Institute’s $56,425 grant project.
The Bronx River Alliance will use its
$52,866 grant to fund “Project WASTE”
(Waterway and Street Trash Elimination),
which partners with New York City’s Parks’
Natural Resource Group and the New York
Botanical Gardens to conduct floating
trash assessments at collection booms and
analyze the data from up-, mid- and down-
stream locations to determine sources
and suggest targeted mitigation programs.
Once the programs are in place, continued
monitoring and analysis will help track their
effectiveness.EPA’s $48,125 grant will fund
the North Hudson Sewerage Authority’s
“Preventing Aquatic Trash” program, which
will retrofit 250 faceplate covers on catch
basins in high-volume traffic areas in Union
City and West New York, N.J. to capture trash before it
enters waterways.
The $47,250 grant to the Clean Water Fund’s “ReThink
Disposable in Jersey” program will help the non-profit
work with the local food industry to cut down the use of
packaging in take-out food, including providing education
and training on preventing marine debris to restaurants,
food trucks and other food establishments along the
boardwalk and in the downtown areas of Asbury Park,
N.J..Single-use plastics bags will be the target of the
NYC Department of Environmental Protection’s $32,500
funding.
The “Trash Free NYC Waters: Bag Challenge” will use a
combination of public outreach, market research and
messaging to educate the supermarket industry and the
communities they serve on how plastic bags impact local
waters.