Ohio State Representative, Lauren McNally has announced on Monday the awarding of $3,714 in state funds from the Ohio EPA for the Islamic Academy of Youngstown.

The funding will be used to replace water fountains with water filling stations as part of Ohio's Recycling and Litter Prevention grant program.

"Reducing single-use plastics like water bottles is a great way to be both environmentally and financially conscious. I'm very happy to see schools in our area making these changes and teaching young people the values of saving our planet and saving money," McNally said.

The grant program made approximately $450,000 available to public and private K-12 schools across Ohio to promote the three R's: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

The money covers the costs of equipment to install or retrofit water fountains with water bottle filling stations in over 100 school buildings across 41 counties across Ohio.

McNally says she hopes more schools in the Mahoning Vallety will take advantage of this funding opportunity.

"Recycling comes much more naturally to people when you make it easy and convenient," McNally said.

Schools in Ohio can begin applying for the 2023 Recycling and Litter Prevention grants starting November 6, 2023 and have until February 2, 2024 to do so.