Sustainable Materials Management Grant Program (United States)

Deadline: 15-Sep-23

The Environmental Protection Agency announces the availability of funds and solicits applications that support the Sustainable Materials Management Program for the benefit of States or communities within EPA Region 2 (New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands and eight Indian Nations).

Sustainable Materials Management (SMM) is a systemic approach to using and reusing materials more productively over their entire life cycles. It represents a change in how the society thinks about the use of natural resources and environmental protection. By examining how materials are used throughout their life cycle, an SMM approach seeks to:

• Use materials in the most productive way with an emphasis on consuming less;
• Reduce toxic chemicals and environmental impacts throughout the material life cycle;
• Assure they have sufficient resources to meet today’s needs and those of the future.

Goals and Objectives

• Awards made under this announcement must support one or more of the following:
  • Goal 1 (Tackle the Climate Crisis),
    • Objective 1.1 (Reduce Emissions that Cause Climate Change);
  • Goal 4 (Ensure Clean and Healthy Air for All Communities),
    • Objective 4.1 (Improve Air Quality and Reduce Localized Pollution and Health Impacts);
  • Goal 5 (Ensure Clean and Safe Water for All Communities),
    • Objective 5.2 (Protect and Restore Water Bodies and Watersheds);
  • Goal 6 (Safeguard and Revitalize Communities)
    • Objective 6.2 (Reduce Waste and Prevent Environmental Contamination).
• Specifically, the activities to be funded under this announcement will be linked to EPA’s Strategic Plan consistent with EPA’s current priorities for preventing contamination and helping communities to achieve goals. Applicants must explain in their applications how their project will further one or more of these objectives.

Priority Areas

• This announcement focuses on the following two strategic priority areas of EPA Region 2 SMM efforts:
  • Sustainable Food Management (SFM)
    • SFM focusses on reducing food loss and waste and diverting food from the landfill according to EPA’s Food Waste Reduction Hierarchy. Source Reduction, otherwise known as waste prevention, is at the top of the hierarchy, followed by donation, industrial applications, and composting.
    • This solicitation is open to projects focusing on source reduction strategies; i.e., this RFA solicits applications focused on preventing waste before it is generated. Even after source reduction strategies are applied, there is nearly always some unavoidable food waste. Including food donation and composting as project components to deal with this unavoidable remainder is acceptable, so long as source reduction is the primary focus of the project.
  • Sustainable Packaging
    • Together, food and packaging/containers account for almost 45% of the materials landfilled in the United States. Common trash from consumer goods comprises the majority of what eventually becomes marine debris, polluting waterways and oceans.
    • Plastics in the aquatic environment are of great concern because of their persistence and effects on the environment, wildlife, and human health. Sustainable packaging projects should focus on developing methods to reduce packaging waste and thereby decrease the quantity of materials directed toward the landfill. Simply increasing recycling rates of packaging waste is not an acceptable focus for this RFA. Fundable projects should strive to create lasting change in the community.
    • Fundable projects must involve research, investigations, experiments, trainings, demonstrations, surveys, public education programs and/or studies that address strategies to reduce food and/or packaging waste, primarily through source reduction. Laboratory research projects will not be funded.

Funding Information

• The total funding for this competitive opportunity shall not exceed $200,000.
• EPA anticipates awarding between one and four assistance agreements from this announcement, subject to the availability of funds, the quality of applications received, and other applicable considerations.
• EPA reserves the right to reject all applications and make no awards.

Duration

• The estimated project period for the award(s) resulting from this solicitation will begin in January 2024. Proposed project periods will be one year.

Eligibility Criteria

• The following entities are eligible to compete under this solicitation: States, local, Tribal, interstate, and intrastate government agencies and instrumentalities, and non-profit organizations that are not 501(c)(4) organizations that lobby, including non-profit educational institutions and non-profit hospitals.
• Individuals and for-profit organizations are not eligible.
• 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.