The Otter Tail County Board of Commissioners has given the green light to the county’s solid waste department to use a West Central Initiative grant to continue its organics recycling program. The commissioners approved the acceptance of the $19,600 Resilient Communities Grant from WCI at their Aug. 8 meeting.
Cedar Walters, the county’s solid waste educator and public information officer, came before the board to give an update on the program and request approval of the grant. According to Walters, the grant will be used to continue support for schools currently participating in the organics recycling program, as well as to add more schools to the list. “We want to thank West Central Initiative for continuing to support this program,” Walters said. “Those funds are going to make it possible to continue school participation in the program, with no cost.”
She noted that schools are some of the biggest generators of food waste, yet if they were to be required to fund the program themselves, “it would be difficult for them to keep going.” With the grant, they may even be able to add more schools to the list of participants, Walters said. “That’s exciting,” she added. “That was the original target of this program (to bring schools on board).”