Consumer Recycling Education and Outreach (REO) Grant Program

Background
The EPA is seeking applications proposing projects that inform the public about new or existing residential or community recycling programs; provide information about the recycled materials that are accepted as part of a residential or community recycling program that provides for the separate collection of residential solid waste from recycled material; and increases collection rates and decreases contamination in residential and community recycling programs. The EPA also recognizes and encourages applications that demonstrate evidence-based messaging and strategies associated with effective communication campaigns designed to increase prevention, reuse, repair, remanufacture, recycling, anaerobic digestion, and composting in communities and/or decrease contamination in the recycling stream. This approach to community-informed messaging goes beyond education only by emphasizing researching the audience, building trust, and reducing audience barriers while emphasizing benefits for desired action.

Grant Details
Projects will improve consumer recycling education with the goal of achieving separate collection of recycled material across the nation, maximizing the efficient reuse of materials, and identifying strategies that otherwise result in an increase in volume of recyclable materials. The EPA also recognizes and encourages applications that demonstrate evidence-based messaging and strategies associated with effective communication campaigns designed to increase prevention, reuse, repair, remanufacture, recycling, anaerobic digestion, and composting in communities and/or decrease contamination in the recycling stream.

Eligibility Requirements
The grant program is open to state colleges and universities including those that are state Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs), Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs), Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs), Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs), Predominately Black Institutions (PBIs), non-profit organizations exempt from taxation under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code that do not lobby. For-profit organizations are not eligible for subawards under this grant program but may receive procurement contracts.

Grant Value
$75 million in funding for the program through the BIL. The National Recycling Strategy proposes building a circular economy to reduce material use, redesign materials to be less resource intensive, and recapturing “waste” as a resource to manufacture new materials and products.