Solid Waste Infrastructure for Recycling Grants for Communities
Please note: The “Recycling Grants for Political Subdivisions” are also called the “Recycling Grants for Communities.”
On this page:
- Overview
- Round One Grant Information
- Eligible Applicants
- Eligible Activities
- Anticipated Award Process and Timeline
- Available Funding
- Resources
- Webinars
- Updates
Overview
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provides $275,000,000 total from Fiscal Year 2022 to Fiscal Year 2026 for grants authorized under the Save Our Seas 2.0 Act. Projects funded through the funding opportunity will:
- Implement the “building a circular economy for all strategy series.”
- Improve local post-consumer materials management programs, including municipal recycling.
- Make improvements to local waste management systems.
The application period for Round Two of this funding opportunity closed on December 20, 2024. EPA anticipates making a selection in summer or fall 2025.
Round One Grant Information
Recipients and Selectees
Applications for Round One of this opportunity opened in 2022. On September 13, 2023, EPA announced the selectees for the Solid Waste Infrastructure for Recycling Grants for Communities.
- Find out about the 2023 recipients and selectees.
- Read the press release for the announcement of selectees.
Eligible Applicants
The entities eligible to apply for the Solid Waste Infrastructure for Recycling Grants for Communities are political subdivisions of states and territories. EPA considers counties, cities, towns, parishes, and similar units of governments that have executive and legislative functions to be political subdivisions of states and territories. Read the Eligible Applicants section of the SWIFR for Communities Notice of Funding Opportunity (pdf) .
Eligible Activities
Materials and waste streams within scope of this funding opportunity include municipal solid waste, including plastics, organics, paper, metal, glass, and construction and demolition debris. This also includes the management pathways of source reduction, reuse, sending materials to material recovery facilities, composting, and industrial uses (e.g., rendering, anaerobic digestion), and feeding animals.
All applications must achieve 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.
- Demonstrate a significant and measurable increase in the diversion, recycling rate, and quality of materials collected for municipal solid waste.
Applications may include (but are not limited to) projects that fund:
- Programs that provide or increase access to innovative solutions or programs that provide or increase access to prevention, reuse, and recycling in areas that currently do not have access; including development of 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.
- Construction of and/or upgrades to composting facilities or anaerobic digesters to increase capacity for food and organics recycling.
- Education and outreach activities as a minor element of larger eligible projects that are funded by the grant.
- Development of or upgrades to curbside collection programs or drop-off stations for organics.
- Development of and/or upgrades to reuse infrastructure (e.g., online reuse platforms, community repair spaces, technology and equipment to improve materials management reuse options, food donation, upcycling, staging areas for material reuse/donation, reuse warehouses, reuse centers, and electronic waste and computer recycling and refurbishing) and/or
- Other activities that the applicant believes will further the objectives of the NOFO provided those activities are eligible for funding under statute and the terms of the NOFO.
Available Funding
The total estimated funding for the competitive opportunity is approximately $58,000,000. EPA anticipates awarding approximately 20 to 30 assistance agreements under this funding opportunity, with at least one award per each EPA Region. The minimum individual award floor is $500,000, and the maximum individual award ceiling is $5,000,000 for the grant period.
How to Determine Eligibility for Program Track
As described in the Notice of Funding Opportunity, projects will be funded under two tracks:
- Track 1: Projects that benefit disadvantaged communities as defined in the NOFO. EPA anticipates approximately 40% (or $23,200,000) of the funding will be awarded to projects that benefit disadvantaged communities.
- Track 2: Projects that benefit all other communities that do not meet the definition of disadvantaged communities.
Applications must clearly indicate and provide adequate proof that the proposed project(s) fall under Track 1 or Track 2. If an application does not provide adequate proof that it qualifies for Track 1, EPA reserves the right to automatically re-assign an application to Track 2. Applicants must submit a screenshot of CEJST proving that it meets one or more of the eight disadvantaged categories identified in the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST) developed by the Council on Environmental Quality, along with a brief narrative to illustrate that the proposed project will benefit a disadvantaged community. Applicants from territories can attest that they are located in a territory without submitting a screenshot of CEJST. If a project is intended to serve multiple communities, only one needs to be meet the definition of disadvantaged community as defined by the CEJST or be located in a U.S. Territory in order to be considered a Track 1 application.
Anticipated Award Process and Timeline
Resources
- This Funding Opportunity in grants.gov.
- Questions and Answers: SWIFR Grants for Communities.
- Prepare for a Grant.
- Model Recycling Program Toolkit.
Webinar
EPA recorded a webinar about this funding opportunity. In it, EPA provides an introduction, an overview of the NOFO, eligible entities, the requirements of the application, the evaluation criteria, available resources, and anticipated questions and their answers.
- Access the recorded webinar.
- Read through the Presentation Slides from the Recorded Webinar about SWIFR Grants for Political Subdivisions Round 2 (pdf) .
EPA held several webinars about the first round of SWIFR Communities grants. Below you can find the materials from the Round One webinar we held about procurement and subawards.
| Date | Time (Eastern) | Presentation Slides | Webinar Recordings |
|---|---|---|---|
| December 13, 2022 | 2:00 - 3:30 pm |
Updates
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