The Green Project Announced as a 2010 Winner of the Social Innovators Institute

The Green Project was just announced as one of the winners of the 2009-2010 Social Innovators Institute through the Lieutenant Governor's Office of Social Entrepreneurship. After presenting our business plan earlier in the day, The Green Project was awarded $10,000 along with the St. Bernard Project and Holy Angels in Shreveport. For the past six months, The Green Project has joined eleven other nonprofit organizations selected to participate in the Institute to create a detailed business plan to expand our paint recycling department into Second Line Recycled Paint.

For the past 16 years, The Green Projected has operated a paint recycling center, but the demand for both our quality paint product and disposal services has far outstripped what we can actually supply. With our expansion, we will not only be able to meet the demand for our product and services, we will also be able to provide a self-sustaining revenue stream to fund our environmental education programming.

Paint may be an everyday household item, but the toxins within it can be extremely detrimental to human health and can devastate marine ecosystems should it be disposed of improperly. Unfortunately, Orleans Parish has no municipal facility to accommodate this paste. Second Line Recycled Paint provides an outlet for this household hazardous waste. By turning this old paint into a quality, 100% recycled content paint, The Green Project can provide an affordable tool to help low-income homeowners maintain their homes and fight the blight overcoming so many of New Orleans's neighborhoods. 

The Green Project now embarks on the next steps to expand Second Line Recycled Paint, and we are thrilled and excited to see how our paint recycling program will grow. We also want to wish all of the other Social Innovator Institute finalists and winners our congratulations, and we know we will soon feel your positive social impact in the community.

If you would like more information about Second Line Recycled Paint, please email Beth Stelson at communication@thegreenproject.org.

Comments

[Construction Material Suppliers]

I had no idead that paint was so damaging to the environment, or that it could be recycled. Good luck with the Second Line Recycled Scheme. What a great idea.