Grand Canyon receives $250,000 grant from National Park Foundation and Subaru

GRAND CANYON, Ariz. -- GRCA is the recent recipient of a $250,000 Don’t Feed the Landfills grant through the National Park Foundation (NPF) and corporate sponsor, Subaru. Congratulations to Dierdre Hanners (FMD) for her work in securing this important grant for the park.

The park is committed to revitalizing its recycling program. The funding will provide for new solid waste and recycling containers, as well as outreach and education programs to focus on re-educating the residents, employees, and visitors of the park on recycling and reduction of solid waste. The overall goal is to have demonstrated reductions in solid waste output and an increase in recycling tonnage, which collectively will reduce the park’s input to landfills.

Throughout FY23, the park will:

• Procure the necessary infrastructure to provide labeling consistency across trash and recycling containers
• Work with concessionaires to start the “Back of House” recycling operation
• Develop and implement an employee/resident recycling training program
• Hire interns through Northern Arizona University and the Greening Youth Foundation to observe visitor and employee solid waste/recycling patterns
• Produce recommendations to address visitor and employee habits including decreasing solid waste drop-off, increasing recycling, and reducing recycling contamination.
• Develop an outward focused recycling program for visitors

Many thanks to the National Park Foundation, Grand Canyon Conservancy and sponsor Subaru for supporting this important park initiative! This past week, Grand Canyon Partnerships Coordinator, Jenn O’Neill was interviewed by the NPF on the significance of this grant for Grand Canyon.