Sponsors (31)
Authorizes an EPA pilot grant program to fund hub-and-spoke recycling projects, prioritizing underserved communities, with $30M/year authorized for FY2025–2029.
Official title: To establish a pilot grant program to improve recycling accessibility, and for other purposes.
Introduced March 14, 2025 by Mariannette Miller-Meeks · Last progress March 14, 2025
The bill provides modest, predictable federal grants and technical support to expand local recycling infrastructure—particularly benefiting tribes, local governments, and underserved communities—but risks inequitable distribution (favoring well‑resourced applicants), excludes funding for education/outreach, and carries a modest federal cost.
Local governments, tribes, and communities gain predictable federal funding of $30 million per year (FY2025–2029) to expand recycling collection and processing capacity, enabling new projects and potentially higher recycling rates.
State governments, tribes, and local governments can access grants up to $15 million (federal share up to 90%), reducing local capital costs and making large recycling infrastructure projects more financially feasible.
Low-income and underserved communities can receive targeted grants to improve curbside collection, transfer stations, and processing capacity, increasing local recycling access and convenience.
Smaller, rural, and less-resourced municipalities may be unable to compete for large grants or meet matching requirements, concentrating benefits in better-resourced areas and worsening equity in access to recycling infrastructure.
A prohibition on using funds for recycling education and outreach may limit community uptake and long-term program effectiveness even where infrastructure is built.
Set-aside and hub-and-spoke priority rules could concentrate projects near existing materials recovery facilities rather than directing benefits to truly remote communities, leaving some rural/remote areas underserved.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Creates a new EPA pilot grant program to expand recycling infrastructure and access, with priority for underserved communities. The program will fund hub-and-spoke recycling projects administered by states, local governments, tribes, and public-private partnerships, with grants from $500,000 to $15 million and $30 million authorized per year for FY2025–2029. The EPA must establish the program within 18 months, reserve at least 70% of funds for projects serving underserved communities, generally cover up to 90% of project costs, allow up to 5% for administration/technical assistance, and report to Congress within two years after the first grant award.