Birmingham is Keeping America Beautiful, One Park at a Time

BIRMINGHAM, MI – You're enjoying a refreshing beverage while walking in a park. You finish your drink and don't see a good place to toss it. Your choices are, throw it in the garbage and add to the landfill, commit littering, or hold on to it while you finish your walk and take it home to recycle. No more! At least not in Birmingham.

The Dr Pepper Snapple Group/Keep America Beautiful Park Recycling Bin Grant Program provided funding for 900 new recycling bins in public parks across the country in 2016, making recycling more accessible for Americans enjoying the outdoors. Birmingham has joined the movement.

“Recycling is very important to the Birmingham community. This grant opportunity gives Birmingham the jump start to launch a long awaited park recycling program,” Lauren Wood, Birmingham Director of Public Services, said in a press release. “For the last several years, recycling is available during all special events and in various downtown locations. We’re pleased to provide additional bins at our parks.”

Sixteen new bins (eight funded by the grant and eight purchased by the City) will be placed in high use zones, including ball fields, tennis courts, playground areas and by picnic tables at the following parks: Kenning Park - Sports Complex, Pembroke Park, St. James Park, Barnum Park and Poppleton Park.

Now in its fourth year, the public park recycling grant program has awarded more than 3,400 recycling bins to Keep America Beautiful affiliates, local governments and other community organizations across 28 states to expand the availability of recycling. The City of Birmingham was given preference in the review process due to the investment of local funds to purchase additional recycling bins beyond those that were awarded through the grant. Learn more about Keep America Beautiful at www.kab.org, and about Dr Pepper Snapple Group’s sustainability goals at www.dpsgsustainability.com.

For more information, call the Department of Public Services at (248) 530-1700.

Photo via City of Birmingham