2024 Region 4 Sustainable Materials Management Grants – United States

Deadline: 31-Oct-2024

United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing 2024 Region 4 Sustainable Materials Management Grants competition and soliciting applications from eligible applicants that will improve community resilience and sustainability through sustainable materials management (SMM).

Applicants must select at least one of the following technical assistance methods: research, investigation, experiments, education, training, studies and/or demonstration of innovative techniques. Applicants’ projects must take place within EPA Region 4, which includes Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.

Priorities

• At least one of the two following SMM priorities must be addressed as part of this NOFO:
  • Addressing Municipal Recycling Markets in Region 4
    • In order to address this challenge, EPA is soliciting projects that will encourage collaboration and coordination across Region 4 geographies, organizations, and/or businesses to enhance rural recycling systems, making them stronger and more agile to address changing materials markets. By establishing stronger networks of recyclers, organizations, and governments, existing recycling systems and markets can be advanced in Region 4.
    • Project examples under this priority include, but are not limited to:
      • establishing and maintaining a collaborative network or cooperative in Region 4 to foster improved approaches to the collection, marketing, and distribution of municipal recycling materials and provide feedstock to manufacturers in the U.S.;
      • developing methods to improve market information, and/or connection between markets (e.g. hub-and-spoke model, different geographic locations, industries, consumers, and generators, etc.) for recovered municipal recyclable material; and,
      • establishing programs that encourage public or private partners to utilize or invest in recycled municipal materials, and ultimately support economic development, create jobs and expand educational outreach around recycled materials markets.
  • Strategies for Preventing Food Loss and Waste in Region 4
    • In June 2024, EPA released the National Strategy for Reducing Food Loss and Waste and Recycling Organics, which identifies effective strategies for addressing food loss and waste. EPA is requesting applications for projects that align with the National Strategy for Reducing Food Loss and Waste and Recycling Organics objectives which include:
      • Prevent food loss,
      • Prevent food waste,
      • Increase the recycling rate for all organic waste, and
      • Support policies that incentivize and encourage the prevention of food loss and waste and organics recycling.
    • Project examples under this priority include, but are not limited to:
      • encouraging the development of policies and practices which effectively divert excess food to new markets and/or expands food rescue capacity;
      • increasing capacity for food waste composting;
      • upgrading and/or facilitating the transition of yard waste composting facilities to composting facilities that also process food scraps;
      • establishing and maintaining a collaborative network in Region 4 to foster improved approaches to address food system challenges;
      • increasing public awareness of the environmental, social, and economic benefits of reducing wasted food via source reduction and distribution to people, particularly in underserved and under-resourced communities;
      • improving data quality, including establishing baseline food waste metrics, assessing progress on current food waste intervention activities, or measuring the potential for increased food rescue efforts.

Funding Information

• EPA Region 4 anticipates awarding approximately 2-4 grants ranging from $50,000 to $125,000 each for a total of approximately $250,000 for the competition.
• The estimated start date for projects resulting from this solicitation is June 1, 2025. All project activities must be completed within the negotiated project performance period of no longer than two years.

Anticipated Outputs and Outcomes 

• Outputs
  • Outputs include but are not limited to:
    • Number of individuals, state, and local governments, and/or businesses served by education, outreach, training, technical assistance, and/or tools related to recycling;
    • Number of recommendations made to local governments and others;
    • Number of new practices applied;
    • Actions or recommendations implemented;
    • Pounds or total volume of food recovered or redirected to those in need;
    • Types of skills and abilities achieved by training participants.
• Outcomes
  • Anticipated outcomes include, but are not limited to:
    • reduction in solid waste going to the landfill,
    • conservation of natural resources, energy, improved air and/or water quality,
    • dollars saved through recycling or reuse efforts,
    • jobs created or retained.

Eligibility Criteria

• Eligible applicants include States, local, Tribal, interstate, and intrastate government agencies and instrumentalities, and non-profit organizations, see information below. formed under Section 501 (c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code (not 501(c)(4) organizations that lobby). This includes the MSIs described in Section I.I. All projects must take place within Region 4.
• Consistent with the definition of Nonprofit organization at 2 CFR § 200.1, the term nonprofit organization means any corporation, trust, association, cooperative, or other organization that is operated mainly for scientific, educational, service, charitable, or similar purpose in the public interest and is not organized primarily for profit; and uses net proceeds to maintain, improve, or expand the operation of the organization. The term includes tax-exempt nonprofit neighborhood and labor organizations. Note that 2 CFR 200.1 specifically excludes Institutions of Higher Education from the definition of non-profit organization because they are separately defined in the regulation. While not considered to be a non-profit organization(s) as defined by 2 CFR 200.1, public or nonprofit Institutions of Higher Education are, nevertheless, eligible to submit applications under this RFA. Hospitals operated by state, tribal, or local governments or that meet the definition of nonprofit at 2 CFR 200.1 are also eligible to apply as nonprofits or as instrumentalities of the unit of government depending on the applicable law. For-profit colleges, universities, trade schools, and hospitals are ineligible. Nonprofit organizations that are not exempt from taxation under section 501 of the Internal Revenue Code must submit other forms of documentation of nonprofit status; such as certificates of incorporation as nonprofit under state or tribal law. Nonprofit organizations exempt from taxation under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code that lobby are not eligible for EPA funding as provided in the Lobbying Disclosure Act, 2 U.S.C. 1611.

For more information, visit Grants.gov.