Eco-tip: Grants available for preventing litter in Ventura County

Grant funds are available for projects in Ventura County aimed at reducing litter in outdoor public spaces. Shown is a trash can Oxnard provided at an Ormond Beach parking lot in 2020.
Grant funds are available for projects in Ventura County aimed at reducing litter in outdoor public spaces. Shown is a trash can Oxnard provided at an Ormond Beach parking lot in 2020.

What does a new trash can and small patch of landscaped area in downtown Bakersfield have in common with half a dozen new recycling containers at Hollister High School in San Benito County, and how do those receptacles highlight an opportunity for Ventura County?

Bakersfield and the high school are tentatively slated to receive funding from a grant program with funds available for similar research projects elsewhere in the state. Cities, counties, colleges, K-12 schools, nonprofit organizations and transportation authorities throughout California are eligible to apply for litter prevention grants from Keep California Beautiful, a nonprofit implementing projects in cooperation with the state-funded Clean California initiative.

Keep California Beautiful has $250,000 to allocate to 15 projects statewide by May 1, and has so far identified only six projects totaling about $105,000.

Presenting even better prospects for a local project, in an effort to spread the grants statewide, Keep California Beautiful reserved at least two of its allocations for a site in Caltrans' District 7, comprised of Ventura and Los Angeles counties, and the organization currently has no applicants for those opportunities.

Proposed projects must be designed to “transform littered areas into clean, beautiful spaces.”

The Bakersfield trash can and landscaped area qualified due to a lack of similar trash receptacles and "parklets" in the area.

The high school recycling containers qualified because, in the absence of a recycling program, some students were putting recyclables on the ground next to the trash cans rather than throwing away recyclables. Litter — even recyclables placed on the ground with good intentions — often begets more litter, so adding recycling containers and implementing a recycling program will likely address the problem.

Other potential projects suggested by Keep California Beautiful include the following: routine cleanup and maintenance of a space; cleanup plus providing litter collection, ash or recycling receptacles; cleanup, collection receptacles and small landscape design; and cleanup plus capture devices for “flowing” litter entering a marine environment.

The goal is not just to reduce litter in outdoor public spaces, but also to collect data on the effectiveness of cleanups versus using litter receptacles and devices or small landscaping projects. Data collected at locations in other states show a reduction of litter by 56% in areas where trash receptacles are appropriately installed and maintained, according to Dr. Cecile Carson, administering the grant application process for Keep California Beautiful.

All projects must be started by June 30 with receptacles or landscape ordered, installed or nearing completion of installation. This deadline is necessary because the first assessment of the grant-awarded projects’ successes will also be due by June 30.

Of course, as with most grants, receiving money also requires spending money. As part of the application, applicants must explain their “service plan for monitoring receptacles or long-term maintenance and irrigation plans for the beautification project.” Applicants must identify the department responsible for managing the plans and explain how the maintenance will be funded long term. The applicant must also agree to collect litter assessment data five times in one year and identify the individual responsible for coordinating the data collection.

If you know a park with insufficient trash cans, or a beach with trash cans missing tops and ravaged by seagulls, get in touch with the public agency in charge of the site and tell the staff about this grant opportunity.

You can find the application at surveymonkey.com/r/KCBDemonstrationProjects24.

David Goldstein, an environmental resource analyst with the Ventura County Public Works Agency, can be reached at 805-658-4312 or david.goldstein@ventura.org.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Eco-tip: Grants available for preventing litter in Ventura County