Get ready for a cleaner, greener New Brunswick, as applications for Encorp’s Community Cleanup Grants are officially open for the third year in a row! Although we all know litter is unacceptable, it has unfortunately made its way into our beautiful green spaces. Thankfully, New Brunswick has so many caring communities ready to make a difference. Our Recycling Heroes have already led many successful cleanup events in the last two years and Encorp is excited to help fund even more!
The Community Cleanup Grants are part of Encorp’s yearly “Be a Recycling Hero!” campaign. This campaign aims to raise awareness on reducing littering in outdoor public spaces, especially when it comes to empty beverage containers, which are so easy to reuse and recycle. As a not-for-profit producer responsibility organization, Encorp collects, processes, and recycles over 350 million beverage containers annually on behalf of hundreds of beverage product distributors in New Brunswick. By doing this, Encorp is ensuring that plastic, glass, aluminum, carton, and other materials needed for packaging your favourite beverages do not end up in landfills or polluting roadways, waterways, and our province’s beautiful outdoor spaces.
But we can’t do this without your help! Being a Recycling Hero means having a zero-tolerance policy for littering, speaking up when you see someone littering, and making sure to always recycle your own empty beverage containers. You can also be a Recycling Hero by helping us recover and recycle beverage containers carelessly left in outdoor spaces as litter when you hold a community cleanup event!
Applying for a Community Cleanup Grant is easy!
Encorp’s Community Cleanup Grants are available for schools, community groups and organizations wanting to give back to our Province and help clean up our outdoor spaces. These $500 grants can be put towards anything you need for your cleanup event: promotion, cleaning supplies, safety gear, food and snacks for the cleanup crew, or anything else that will help you out!
If you want to become a Recycling Hero and organize a cleanup event in your community this year, all you need to do is send in an application. You can find our applications on our Community Cleanups page.
Want to know if you should apply for a grant? Our Community Cleanup Grants are perfect for:
- teachers, student groups and school green/environmental committees that want to organize a cleanup event for their schoolyard or any other outdoor public space students frequent – as a way to enhance environmental education and promote anti-litter awareness;
- not-for-profit organizations, community groups and municipal/town citizen-led committees that want to get their fellow citizens involved in a beach sweep, a park or playground cleanup, a trail cleanup, etc., all the while building community connections and fostering appreciation and respect for public outdoor spaces.
Applications for the grants will be open until all grants have been given out. However, grants will be awarded on a first-come, first-serve basis, so send in your application as soon as you can. Because our grants are limited, we will also prioritize giving grants to a variety of organizations and communities across the province.
As grants are limited, priority will be given to applicants who have not received a Community Cleanup Grant in the last two years.
If you are part of an organization that already received a grant in the past, but would still like to organize a community cleanup event, we would encourage you to partner with another organization that has not already received a grant. Co-applying for a grant with this partner would allow you to receive and share the resources needed to organize a cleanup event, and would get even more people involved in keeping New Brunswick litter-free.
Once you send in your application, you just need to wait for a response. We will let you know whether the application was accepted and what the next steps will be.
What cleanup event will you plan?
Image: École Léandre-LeGresley beach cleanup event
Community cleanup events are a fun and educational way to show your appreciation for the place you live and make it a better space for everyone. Want some inspiration to organize your own cleanup event? Look no further than our past Recycling Heroes. They have cleaned outdoor spaces all over our lovely province, including beaches, rivers, highways, neighbourhoods, and more.
If your community is organizing a cleanup event, don’t forget to find your local Redemption Centre! Any deposit-bearing beverage container found during your cleanup event should be returned to a Redemption Centre. Returning those beverage containers provides more money for your community and gives those containers the opportunity to be recycled and reused. Check our site for a guide on which beverage containers can be returned to a Redemption Centre.
Image: Squadron 333 cleanup Route 102
Finally, if you are organizing a cleanup event, it is essential to keep safety in mind. Past Recycling Heroes spent some of their grant to purchase items such as safety vests and work gloves for their cleanup crew. Whenever applicable, we would encourage you to invest in safety measures for your community.
Send in your application to become a Recycling Hero
Applications are now open, so don’t hesitate to fill one out and we will get back to you as soon as we can. Even if you do not qualify for an application, or we have already given out all our grants, we would encourage you to organize or join community cleanups whenever possible. Have fun planning, and thank you for your dedication to keep this earth litter-free!
If you have any questions about the Community Cleanup Grants, you can reach us at [email protected].
