Sponsors (3)
The bill directs modest federal funding to expand recycling capacity and data-driven planning—prioritizing underserved communities and market development—but does so as a time‑delayed pilot with limited funding for reporting, no support for education/outreach, and some requirements that shift costs and burdens to state and local governments.
Residents in underserved, rural, and tribal communities will gain expanded local recycling collection and hub-and-spoke infrastructure through grants (up to $15M per project) backed by a $30M/year authorization for five years, reducing collection/transport costs and improving access to recycling.
The program explicitly prioritizes environmental justice by targeting underserved communities and areas lacking nearby materials recovery facilities, directing resources toward communities with historic underinvestment.
States, tribes, and localities (and the private sector) will receive standardized data, technical assistance, inventories, diversion metrics, and end‑market sales information that help identify capacity gaps, plan targeted investments, and support development of domestic recycling/composting markets.
The pilot requires $30M/year in federal spending over five years, imposing an opportunity cost on taxpayers and federal budgets that could have gone to other priorities.
The program excludes funding for recycling education and outreach, meaning grants cannot be used for resident engagement that is often necessary to achieve higher participation and effective diversion.
Although federal cost-share can cover up to 95% of project costs, lower-resourced communities may still struggle to identify the remaining match and other non-federal contributions, delaying project starts.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Authorizes EPA grants to expand recycling hub-and-spoke infrastructure, requires new recycling/compost market data and inventories, and funds EPA reporting activities.
Official title: Establish a pilot grant program to improve recycling accessibility, to require the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to carry out certain activities to collect and disseminate data on recycling and composting programs in the United States, and for other purposes.
Introduced January 30, 2025 by Shelley Moore Capito · Last progress November 20, 2025
Creates a new EPA pilot grant program to build recycling “hub-and-spoke” infrastructure and improve recycling access in underserved communities, plus new data, reporting, and inventories on recycling and composting capacity. It authorizes $30 million per year (FY2025–FY2029) for the pilot grants and $4 million per year for EPA data and reporting activities, sets grant size and cost-share rules, and requires several EPA reports to Congress and public inventories on materials recovery facilities, markets, and composting barriers.