Eight counties | 36 cities | one region

ST. JAMES—During a June 21 meeting, the Six Little Lego Girls presented the Ozark Rivers Solid Waste Management District’s (ORSWMD) board with their “Waste Wise” Lego project, promoting youth recycling, funded locally through the Ozark Rivers 2016 grant program.

The Lego Girls were one of many “Waste Wise” teams, sponsored by the Kaleidoscope Discovery Center (KDC) in Rolla, a 2016 grant recipient. KDC sponsored teams for the “Waste Wise” project to encourage students to learn about recycling on their own.

The program allowed participants to choose a material they wanted to learn more about and show how to recycle it. Parents Candy Stanley and Stephanie McCarthy led the team and said the girls were inspired.

“They picked recycled glass, using stained glass windows as inspiration,” Stanley said.

The six girls, three of whom were present at the meeting, were then required to build a project with Legos to represent how they would use the recycled material in the project. The project also required they demonstrate movement using a simple machine.

Why glass?

“We thought we could do lots of things with glass,” said Julia Stanley, one of the team member.

Teams later presented their projects. While the program is not competitive, it is meant to teach participants how to present their projects and think outside the box.

“Judges would come around and ask the girls about their projects,” said Candy Stanley.

The Lego Girls built a church from their Lego kit and added the stained glass windows with their chosen material. Each team was also provided with a motion parts kit, and the girls constructed a pulley to hang a cross above their church.

During the meeting, the board finalized its 2017 grant cycle, which opens July 6 with grant requests due by noon on Aug. 29. Grant applications are available online at www.ozarkrivers.org or by contacting Jill Hollowell at jhollowell@meramecregion.org or call 573-265-2993.

In other business, the board:

• Elected board officers by retaining Brady Wilson, city of Rolla environmental services director, as chairman, for an additional term along with City of Potosi Representative Gary Gillam as vice chair, Dent County Presiding Commissioner Darrell Skiles as secretary and Belle Mayor Steve Vogt as treasurer;
• Learned the state is working towards a tire collection contract since Missouri Vocational Enterprises is no longer collecting scrap tires. ORSWMD will be sending out bid requests for scrap tire collection and processing services;
• Learned of interest to expand the household hazardous waste (HHW) program to another location within the district;
• Learned that the OR Executive Committee had voted to discontinue funding for disposal of latex paint through the HHW collection programs, beginning January 2017. The group discussed the importance of increased awareness and education on the proper disposal of household hazardous waste.
• Approved content for the 2017 grant packet;
• Was updated on financials for the year; and
• Approved closeout of Waynesville School District grant.

The Ozark Rivers District includes Crawford, Dent, Gasconade, Maries, Phelps, Pulaski and Washington counties and their respective cities with populations of 500 or more. The district’s strategy for solid waste reduction, which has been individually adopted by all member governments and approved by MDNR, involves intense education and increased recycling efforts in member counties and cities. Meramec Regional Planning Commission provides day-to-day staffing of Ozark Rivers.

Ozark Rivers website is www.ozarkrivers.org.

Those needing more information on recycling can contact Tammy Snodgrass, MRPC environmental programs manager, or Jill Hollowell, environmental programs specialist at 573-265-2993 or by email at tsnodgrass@meramecregion.org or jhollowell@meramecregion.org.