Deadline: 20-Dec-2024
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is pleased to announce the Political Subdivisions of States and Territories Solid Waste Infrastructure Recycling Grants Program.
The EPA is soliciting applications for a wide variety of projects that are designed to build and transform solid waste infrastructure in the U.S. to equitably reduce waste and manage materials to achieve a circular economy, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and create cleaner, resilient, and healthier communities.
The EPA also recognizes and encourages applications that demonstrate innovative solutions and programs that provide or increase access to prevention, reuse, recycling, anaerobic digestion, and composting opportunities in areas that currently do not have access.
In addition, the EPA is seeking post-consumer materials management projects that address environmental justice concerns and focus predominantly on addressing the disproportionate and adverse human health, environmental, climate-related and other cumulative impacts, as well as the accompanying economic challenges of such impacts that have affected and/or currently affect:
- People/communities of color;
- low income, tribal, and indigenous populations; and
- if applicable other vulnerable populations such as the elderly, children, and those with pre-existing medical conditions
Objectives
- All applications must address one or more of the following objectives,
- Establish, increase, expand, or optimize collection and improve materials management infrastructure
- Fund the creation and construction of tangible infrastructure, technology, or other improvements to reduce contamination in the recycled materials stream;
- Establish, increase, expand, or optimize capacity for materials management;
- Establish, improve, expand, or optimize end-markets for the use of recycled commodities; or
- Demonstrate a significant and measurable increase in the diversion, recycling rate, and quality of materials collected for municipal solid waste
Funding Information
- The minimum individual award is $500,000 and the maximum individual award is $5,000,000 for the grant period, which is up to three years.
Eligible Projects
- Applications may also include (but are not limited to) projects that fund:
- Programs that provide or increase access to prevention, reuse, and recycling in areas that currently do not have access; including development of and/or upgrades to drop-off and transfer stations (including but not limited to a hub-and-spoke model in rural communities), etc.;
- The purchase of recycling equipment, including but not limited to sorting equipment, waste metering, trucks, processing facilities, etc.;
- Upgrades to material recovery facilities (MRFs) such as optical sorters, artificial intelligence, etc.;
- Education and outreach activities as a minor element of larger eligible projects that are funded by the grant;
- Construction of and/or upgrades to composting facilities or anaerobic digesters to increase capacity for food and organics recycling;
- Development of and/or upgrades to curbside collection programs or drop-off stations for organics.
Eligibility Criteria
- Eligible Applicants
- Under this announcement, applications will be accepted from political subdivisions of states and territories. The EPA considers counties, cities, towns, parishes, and similar units of governments that have executive and legislative functions to be political subdivisions of states.
- Local governments are generally political subdivisions of states and differ from state and federal governments in that their authority is not based directly on a constitution.
- Other entities (e.g., state or territorial institutions of higher education, special districts, housing authorities) must provide a documented legal opinion from the applicant’s legal counsel or equivalent. The documentation must include a statement that the state or territory in which they are located considers these entities to be a political subdivision of the state.
- Tribes and intertribal consortia are not eligible entities under this announcement.
For more information, visit Grants.gov.