The Recycling Partnership, Industry Leaders Invest in Education Grants

The Recycling Partnership announced the recipients of its Steve Thompson Memorial Grant program to bring recycling professionals from across the U.S. to St. Louis for the 2018 Resource Recycling Conference.

The funding, which exceeds $80,000, is the result of collaboration within the industry to identify and meet the needs of municipal recycling professionals. Closed Loop Partners and Resource Recycling Inc. also funded this year’s grant program alongside The Recycling Partnership and additional funders are welcome to step forward to further grow the opportunity.

“The term ‘partnership’ is in our name for a reason—we can’t do it alone,” said Keefe Harrison, the organization’s CEO and Waste360 40 Under 40 award recipient, in a statement. “The Steve Thompson Memorial Grant program shows partnership in action: industry corporations coming together to educate state and local change-makers and deliver powerful, effective, tactical tools to boost recycling across the country.”

This is the third year that The Recycling Partnership, in association with Resource Recycling, has offered the Steve Thompson Memorial Grant to bring recycling professionals to the Resource Recycling Conference, paying for travel, lodging and registration. More than 350 recycling professionals from all 50 U.S. states and five countries submitted applications. The Partnership currently issued 60 grants for the 2018 conference, continually growing the program from years past (53 grants were awarded in 2017, and 10 in 2016).

Steve Thompson was a committed recycling champion who worked tirelessly to move the industry forward. Thompson, who passed away in 2016, served as executive director of The Recycling Partnership's precursor organization, the Curbside Value Partnership, before retiring in 2014. The grants are meant to honor him and his life's work.