Waltham & Lincoln Receive Sustainable Materials Recovery Program Grants

The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection’s (MassDEP) Sustainable Materials Recovery Program (SMRP) recently awarded grants to the Town of Lincoln and More than Words in Waltham, to help to increase diversion, reuse, composting and recycling of materials in the solid waste stream. More Than Words (MTW), a non-profit social enterprise that operates youth job training programs, was awarded $65,000 to expand their textile donation and recovery program. MTW partners with dozens of greater Boston municipalities to collect donated books and textiles for reuse and recovery. The Town of Lincoln received more than $34,000 in mattress recycling incentive grants which will pay for the cost of recycling residential mattresses that are collected and recycled by one of four mattress recycling companies on Massachusetts state contract. About 75 percent of a mattress’s components are recyclable. Recycling is a preferred management method since mattresses are bulky and costly to dispose of in landfills and incinerators.

The SMRP, created under the Green Communities Act and administered by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP), offers funding for recycling, composting, reuse and source reduction activities that will reduce the amount of waste disposed of in landfills and incinerators. Waste prevention and recycling reduces greenhouse gas emissions by capturing the embodied energy in every-day product and packaging waste and converting these sources into new products with a smaller carbon footprint.