Advocacy

SWANA Submits Comments on EPA Recycling Grant Programs

The Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) has provided comments to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on new Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding for solid waste prevention, management, and recycling initiatives. SWANA urges EPA to create a grant application process that will be equitable to communities of all sizes and to allow grant funding to go the widest possible categories of infrastructure, education, and outreach programs and projects.

EPA issued a request for information on two grant programs funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and supported by SWANA. The Solid Waste Infrastructure for Recycling Grant Program provides $275 million to improve post-consumer materials management and infrastructure. The Education and Outreach Grant Program provides $75 million for programs to inform the public about waste prevention and recycling to increase collection rates and decrease contamination.

The next steps are for EPA to review received comments and issue the Requests for Applications. They are expected to do so in Fall 2022. To be added to EPA’s grants email list, sign-up here.

Senate Passes Recycling Infrastructure, Data & Reporting Bills

On July 28, the U.S. Senate passed the Recycling Infrastructure and Accessibility Act (S. 3742) by unanimous consent. This bill would establish a recycling grant program to make recycling more accessible to rural and disadvantaged communities. SWANA strongly supported this legislation and will be encouraging the House of Representatives to pass a companion bill.

The bill directs the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to create a Recycling Infrastructure and Accessibility Program to award competitive grants to states, local governments, tribes, and public-private partnerships. The goal is to fund projects that will significantly improve accessibility to recycling systems through investments in infrastructure in underserved communities through the use of a hub-and-spoke model for recycling infrastructure development.

A total amount for the program is not set in the text of the bill but does set grant amounts between $500,000 and $15 million. Priority will be given to communities where there is not more than one materials recovery facility within a 75-mile radius.

The Senate also passed the Recycling and Composting Accountability Act (S. 3743), which directs EPA to collect numerous types of recycling and composting data. These include reports on composting infrastructure capabilities and Federal agency recycling practices, an inventory of materials recovery facilities, a comprehensive baseline of data for the US recycling system, standardization of recycling reporting rates, a report on end markets, a study on the diversion of recyclable materials from a circular market, and the development of voluntary guidelines to enhance recycling and composting.