Dive Brief:
- The U.S. EPA has announced $58 million in Solid Waste Infrastructure for Recycling, or SWIFR, grants. The grants are meant to improve communities’ recycling, reuse, composting and anaerobic digestion systems across the country.
- EPA awarded 17 recipients grants in the latest SWIFR round, funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. EPA received applications from 307 local governments across the country, with applicants requesting a total of around $1.1 billion. EPA says it approved about 5% of that requested total.
- Community projects include new waste collection infrastructure in Hawai’i; a redesigned transfer station in Pennsylvania; a commercial recycling program in South Dakota; a reuse center in Washington; and a number of additional organics, recycling and reuse projects in other states and territories.
Dive Insight:
The SWIFR program, which the EPA has said is the “largest recycling investment in 30 years,” has funded numerous projects in recent years, including for programs that have made improvements in cities, suburbs, rural areas and parts of the country with limited resources.
The Trump administration paused or cancelled numerous grants earlier this year, including for waste and recycling initiatives, but the EPA has long maintained it would continue disbursing SWIFR funding.
This is the second round of SWIFR grants. During the first round of grants, released in October 2023, EPA awarded 25 grants totaling $72.9 million. At that time, the agency also allocated another $32 million total to states and territories to help with data collection, solid waste management planning and other implementation needs.
This time, EPA announced projects in Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Puerto Rico, Tennessee and Texas. Full information for all 17 projects was not available as of press time, but the agency did offer details for certain recycling projects.
Maui County, Hawai’i, will receive more than $3.6 million to establish collection centers for green waste, recyclables and bulky items in an effort to divert about 1,794 tons of material from landfills and dump sites each year.
“The community will be able to reduce illegal dumping, divert more waste from their landfills, and help Maui create a waste system fit to the unique realities of an island,” Claire Trombadore, director of EPA’s Pacific Southwest Land, Chemicals and Redevelopment Division, said in a statement. The project also helps address a “critical need” for collection centers in a region that was affected by wildfires in 2023, she said.
The County of Delaware, Pennsylvania, received nearly $5 million for a “Transfer Stations Reimagined” program meant to raise diversion rates through increased composting and recycling initiatives.
Pittsburgh will receive $1.66 million to increase collection frequency and boost outreach for its yard waste collection program.
Rapid City, South Dakota, will use $4.9 million to open a new commercial recycling program and update its existing equipment in an effort to double recycling rates and improve material quality.
In Utah, the Wasatch Integrated Waste Management District will devote its $3.4 million grant to expand a compost facility, purchase curbside organics collection bins and start up new education and outreach activities to increase participation, according to a news release.
More than $4.5 million will fund the Shoreline Reuse Center in Washington, envisioned as a “one-stop shop for residents and businesses seeking to responsibly acquire, donate, repair, and repurpose goods while inspiring innovative solutions to reduce waste,” according to a news release. It will be co-located in a building with a tool library, community secondhand bike repair shop and a space for local reuse and repair organizations, according to the EPA. That project is expected to divert more than 670 tons of reusable materials over the course of the grant period, the agency said.
Another $3.8 million will go toward a vehicle end-of-life recycling and training program in Unalaska, Alaska. That multi-part initiative will establish a program to “process and remove” abandoned vehicles in the region and train personnel to recycle the vehicle parts. A public education component will raise awareness of recycling procedures and the proper disposal of hazardous materials, EPA said.
"By updating recycling infrastructure and programs, we are not only addressing current waste management challenges but also paving the way for a cleaner future for generations to come," said EPA Region 10 Administrator Emma Pokon in a statement.
EPA still plans to announce a separate set of about $20 million in SWIFR funding for tribes and tribal consortia, the second such round of funding for these groups. Grant applications are due Jan. 23, 2026.
In August, the EPA announced it had allocated the rest of the funding for another recycling-related grant called the a Recycling Education and Outreach grant program. The agency announced a $39 million “cooperative agreement” with the Consumer Recycling Education and Outreach Coalition, a group that includes the World Wildlife Fund, ReFED, the Waste and Resources Action Programme, The Ad Council, the US Composting Council, and the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act provided a total of $75 million for the grant, with the first round of recipients announced in 2023.
