EPA announces food waste grants

The U.S. EPA this month announced $117 million for three separate funding opportunities to advance recycling infrastructure and boost food waste prevention education across the country.

Two of the notices are for Solid Waste Infrastructure for Recycling grants—one funding opportunity for tribes and intertribal consortia and the other for cities, counties and parishes across the U.S.

The third notice is for EPA’s Recycling Education and Outreach grant program and is focused on food waste prevention and composting. The grants are funded by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021.

EPA said some communities that lack waste management infrastructure do not have curbside waste collection services, recycling or composting programs, which increases the strain on local waste management systems and increases greenhouse gas emissions. The grant opportunities aim to improve waste management systems and consumer education and outreach on waste prevention and recycling, meeting Congress’ goal to create a stronger, more resilient and cost-effective U.S. recycling system, EPA said. The grants also put the concrete steps identified in the National Strategy for Reducing Food Loss and Waste and Recycling Organics into action, the agency said, adding that the “projects that EPA will fund under the Recycling Education and Outreach grant selection—including a national education and outreach campaign—will lead to more recycling through composting, less wasted food from households, better markets for selling compost and less contamination in the compost stream. Projects funded through the Solid Waste Infrastructure for Recycling grants will improve post-consumer materials management and infrastructure.”

The recycling funding for tribes and intertribal consortia will provide about $20 million total in awards ranging from $100,000 to $1.5 million each. The recycling funding for communities will provide about $58 million total in awards ranging from $500,000 to $5 million each. This includes projects that will improve collection, transport, systems and processes related to post-use materials that can be recovered, reused, recycled, repaired, refurbished or composted.

The funding for the Recycling Education and Outreach (REO) Grant Program

• will provide about $39 million for one award. EPA seeks coalition applications that include the following elements:
• a project to develop and implement a national consumer wasted food reduction campaign;
• a project that will increase the market for and sales of compost; and
• a project that will increase education and outreach to households on composting. Applicants must demonstrate they will sub-award a portion of the total award to implement education and outreach activities locally, which will benefit local communities.

More details about the programs are available here.