The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality’s solid waste grants can cover a number of solid waste control projects from combating illegal dumps to expanding a city’s recycling program, and Vicksburg is eligible to apply annually for more funding, an administrator for the state’s grant program told members of the city’s beautification committee.

“This is not federal money; this is state money,” MDEQ grant administrator Denise Rodgers told the committee Thursday. “You can apply for a grant each year. You are not limited. As long as the city needs assistance, it can apply for a grant or ask to have its present grant extended.”

Her comments came as the committee starts examining the best use for a $50,000 MDEQ grant awarded in July to expand the city’s pilot recycling program, which began in 2012 with a $25,000 MDEQ grant and currently has 90 participants.

Developing a plan to use the funds is the committee’s first charge from the Board of Mayor and Aldermen.

Rodgers said the Legislature establishes the grant fund every year, adding, “There is money available for cities and counties to use out of this fund every fiscal year toward solid waste activities to supplement their normal garbage collection.

“That means illegal dumpsite cleanups, hiring a solid waste enforcement officer, … establishing recycling programs,” she said.

She said grant applications are scored based on the description of the project. The grant award is based on a program’s overall score, with the top scores getting full funding. DEQ, she said, will also work with a community if the initial plans for its recycling program change.

“As long as the basic premise of your project remains the same, we are willing to work with the city,” Rodgers said. “As long as it’s recycling, as long as it’s staying in your program, we can work with you all exactly how the dollars are spent.”

She said the grant agreement is a contract between the state and the city, “(and) the only legal obligation the city has with this grant is to make sure it meets the conditions that the agency (DEQ) has set out.”

Vicksburg’s experience with recycling programs goes back more then 20 years.

City grants coordinator Marcia Weaver said the city’s first attempt was in 1990, when members of the League of Women Voters asked the board to begin a curbside recycling program, which failed to take root.

In 1992, then-Mayor Robert Walker had a 90-day pilot recycling program that involved 170 homes in the Enchanted Hills subdivision.

The program ended when the city and Browning-Ferris Inc., which provided the services for the pilot program, failed to reach an agreement on a long-term contract to expand the service.

Four years later, another program conducted in conjunction with city elementary schools involved two trailers to collect recyclables that were bought by the city for $12,890 that collected materials at the schools. The trailers were later donated to the schools.

The most successful recycling programs involved a 2011 program where recyclables were collected in city buildings and collected by MIDD-West Industries, which processed them to be sold to industries, and the 2012, the program funded with the $25,000 MDEQ grant to begin a pilot recycling program that was expected to involve about 150 homes in an area bounded on the west by Cherry Street, east by Eisenhower Drive, north by East Avenue and the south by Chambers Street.

Recycling coordinator Angela Turner said about 90 people are currently participating in the program, adding she is getting calls from residents in the designated area about participating.

Under the current pilot program, No. 1 and No. 2 plastic containers like soft drink and milk containers, and paper are collected by the city’s community services workers on Tuesdays, which is the program area’s regular garbage collection day. The items are collected by community service workers and taken to MIDD-West Industries on Smokey Lane to be sorted and baled.

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen appointed the nine-member beautification committee July 24 to develop programs to improve and clean the city and develop a pilot recycling program.

The committee on Oct. 9 received a charter from Keep America Beautiful renewing the city’s affiliation with the national organization. Keep America Beautiful is a national nonprofit organization that works with local and state volunteers to make their communities better places to live.