SWACO announced that it is awarding more than $250,000 in grants to 12 local community partners, a significant increase over recent years.聽 SWACO鈥檚 Community Waste Reduction (CWR) grant program awards competitive grants each year for innovative projects that significantly reduce waste or increase the diversion of waste from the Franklin County Landfill.聽 The recipients are local governments and nonprofits, schools, hospitals, and churches, and SWACO prioritizes applications with an emphasis on partnership and collaboration.
The projects funded by this year鈥檚 CWR grants prioritize waste reduction and reuse, including a new donation incentive program from Goodwill Columbus that will reward residents for donating their unwanted items to Goodwill instead of sending them to the landfill, programing at two Franklin County middle schools to teach the students about our waste stream and learn about how recycling and composting programs could be integrated with curriculum, and support for a program that accepts donations of used sports and playground equipment and makes it available to under-resourced schools and youth groups.
鈥淩educing the amount waste coming into the landfill is one of our core missions, and it takes a community-wide effort,鈥� said SWACO Executive Director, Joe Lombardi.聽 鈥淭he Community Waste Reduction grant program helps fund an amazing array of innovative programs across the county that benefit our residents and help prolong the life of the landfill, and we鈥檙e thrilled to be able to fund so many of them this year.鈥�
Successful Community Waste Reduction grant applications emphasize partnership-building and collaboration, and leverage the waste stream for community and economic benefit.聽 They must be within SWACO鈥檚 jurisdiction of Franklin County, and the grant recipients are required to document the project鈥檚 impact.聽 Grants are available for amounts ranging from $500 to $35,000, and recipients must provide a 20% cash match.
鈥淭he Worthington Partnership is excited to have this opportunity to implement reuse projects at the Worthington Farmers Market and in Downtown Worthington,鈥� said Dan Barash of the Worthington Partnership Green Team. 聽鈥淥ne key focus of this initiative is expanding the network of coffee shops participating in a borrow-based reusable cup program that was originally launched by our colleagues at the Central Ohio Reuse Coalition.聽 Using software and stainless steel cups from Okapi Reusables, this program enables customers to borrow and return reusable cups at any shop in the network, while tracking their personal reuse impact over time.鈥�
In 2024, SWACO awarded more than $113,000 in CWR grants to five local governments and other nonprofit organizations for initiatives to divert waste material from the landfill.聽 The cities of Dublin and Gahanna used their funding last year to add recycling containers to city parks, ECDI started a composting program for the kitchens using its Food Fort facilities, Hilliard City Schools is funding a district-wide waste reduction study and strategic plan, and Ohio Dominican University is using it鈥檚 funding to implement a campus-wide single-stream recycling program.
Applications for 2026 CWR grants will be accepted beginning in May of 2025.