The Town of Farmington has for many years mailed biannual or quarterly newsletters to its residents. These newsletters have proven to be very successful in educating the public about new or upcoming programs, bond initiatives, or general activities of the Town and its Commissions. Due to the consistent nature of the newsletters, people respond well to them and seem to anticipate them. As a result, they have served the Town well as an educational resource. Today, the newsletters are further supplemented by the Town’s web site, as the newsletter can direct people to the web site for even more information (www.farmington-ct.org). While the Green Effort’s Committee can include individual articles in the Town newsletter, space is usually very limited. For that reason, the Committee has sought to fund their own newsletters. Earlier this year the Green Efforts Committee mailed out a newsletter to Town residents to educate them about the Committee, and its initiatives, as well as education on green actions such as purchasing Connecticut Clean Energy Options, stormwater management and recycling. A copy of the newsletter is included with this application. This newsletter was paid for with a grant from the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund. As consistency is important in the newsletter’s success and with educational outreach in general, the Green Efforts Committee has established a monthly “Idea of the Month” that is included in the Farmington Board of Education’s “Friday Folder” that is distributed to all families with children in the Farmington Public Schools at no cost to the Committee. Ideas of the Month have included Household Hazardous Waste and Clean-up Days, new recycling items, Integrated Pest Management, Composting and Rain Barrels. Copies of past “Ideas” have been included with this application to show further examples of the Green Effort’s Committee’s education outreach. The Green Efforts Committee’s initiatives and outreach are supplemented further by the inclusion of a Green Efforts section on the Town’s web site. Its address is www.farmingtonct.org/about/green/default.aspx. Copies of the Committee’s educational outreach such as newsletters and “Ideas of the Month” can be found in this section of the web site. The proposed recycling newsletter would be a similar format as the green newsletter; however, it would be entirely on recycling. Topics will include how to recycle (single-stream), what to recycle, Where do recyclable go and what do they become, how are we doing compared to surrounding towns, and possibly touching on composting (recycling yard waste and garbage) and rain barrels (recycling water). We are planning to mail the newsletter around February-March 2011, and the Town is planning to initiate single stream recycling around May-June 2011. We feel the timing of the newsletter will be excellent to jumpstart the Town’s single-stream recycling program by rejuvenating interest and excitement about recycling before the program begins. Additionally, the Committee will continue its “Ideas of the Month” to emphasize and reiterate recycling issues brought up in the newsletter. Single stream recycling has proven to increase the recycling rate in towns. We hope to boost Farmington’s recycling rates even further by providing strong outreach and education about recycling before the program begins. A townwide newsletter solely on recycling will be a key component of this outreach. The Green Efforts Committee's green newsletter cost approximately $4,000, evenly split between the cost of printing and the cost of postage to 9,976 households. Town staff and Committee members will prepare the articles and newsletter layout in preparation for printing. We are seeking funding for half of the project through this grant, and will be applying for the remaining $2,000 through another small grant program.