Dive Brief:
- The U.S. EPA has not canceled the selection process for the second round of Solid Waste Infrastructure for Recycling grants and Recycling Education and Outreach grants. It is “currently working through the approval process” for these grants, set to be disbursed later this year, the agency said in an email on Friday. Confirmation that the programs will continue comes after months of uncertainty over the status of numerous federal grant opportunities for waste and recycling projects.
- For this round of SWIFR grants, the EPA expects to disburse a total of about $58 million to communities, states and territories sometime in the summer or fall. Another $20 million in SWIFR grants, meant for Tribes and intertribal consortia, is also going through the approval process, an EPA spokesperson said. A web page for that grant program was not operational as of press time.
- The EPA said it would award up to $39 million to a single applicant in the second round of the REO grant program. That was expected to be announced sometime in the spring, but the spokesperson did not respond to a request for an updated timeline on the process.
Dive Insight:
The Trump administration has paused or canceled numerous grant programs across the federal government, particularly those funded by the Inflation Reduction Act, other climate-related laws, or programs connected to environmental justice efforts or diversity, equity and inclusion. Meanwhile, some groups with active grants reported disbursement interruptions or other problems. Some grant applicants who turned in their requests for SWIFR and REO funding by the December deadline said they have been in wait-and-see mode to determine whether their applications would even be considered.
The EPA anticipates awarding from 20 to 30 assistance agreements for SWIFR’s second round. The grants could be between $500,000 and $5 million for the grant period, according to the funding page.
For the second round of REO funding, the EPA had previously said it would issue one award to a coalition that will work on food waste reduction, compost sales and household compost education.
SWIFR was authorized by the Save Our Seas 2.0 Act, and both that program and REO were funded through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.The first round of SWIFR and REO funding, announced in 2023, was considered a major boost to community recycling and waste diversion.
The first SWIFR grants included about $105 million for recycling, organics and waste-related projects such as new MRF infrastructure, residential organics collection and solar-powered composting facilities. Another $60 million went to tribes and intertribal consortia for projects to build transfer stations, install new recycling equipment at facilities and build mobile recycling stations, among other projects.
The EPA also disbursed about $33.3 million for the first round of REO grants to cities, organizations and tribes. The grants were meant to help increase recycling collection rates and decrease contamination through public engagement programs. New York City received a grant to boost composting education ahead of its citywide curbside compost program rollout, while grants in other cities funded AI-assisted cameras that measure contamination, multi-lingual recycling ambassador programs and technical support initiatives.
