I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2145
To establish a pilot grant program to improve recycling accessibility, and
for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH14, 2025
Mrs. M
ILLER-MEEKS(for herself, Ms. SHERRILL, Mr. JOYCEof Ohio, Ms.
T
ENNEY, and Ms. MCCLELLAN) introduced the following bill; which was
referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce
A BILL
To establish a pilot grant program to improve recycling
accessibility, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Recycling Infrastruc-4
ture and Accessibility Act of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. RECYCLING INFRASTRUCTURE AND ACCESSIBILITY 6
PROGRAM. 7
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 8
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(1) ADMINISTRATOR.—The term ‘‘Adminis-1
trator’’ means the Administrator of the Environ-2
mental Protection Agency. 3
(2) C
URBSIDE RECYCLING .—The term 4
‘‘curbside recycling’’ means the process by which 5
residential recyclable materials are picked up 6
curbside. 7
(3) E
LIGIBLE ENTITY.—The term ‘‘eligible enti-8
ty’’ means— 9
(A) a State (as defined in section 1004 of 10
the Solid Waste Disposal Act (42 U.S.C. 11
6903)); 12
(B) a unit of local government; 13
(C) an Indian Tribe; and 14
(D) a public-private partnership. 15
(4) I
NDIAN TRIBE.—The term ‘‘Indian Tribe’’ 16
has the meaning given the term in section 4 of the 17
Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance 18
Act (25 U.S.C. 5304). 19
(5) M
ATERIALS RECOVERY FACILITY .— 20
(A) I
N GENERAL.—The term ‘‘materials 21
recovery facility’’ means a recycling facility 22
where primarily residential recyclables, which 23
are diverted from disposal by a generator and 24
collected separately from municipal solid waste, 25
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are mechanically or manually sorted into com-1
modities for further processing into specifica-2
tion-grade commodities for sale to end users. 3
(B) E
XCLUSION.—The term ‘‘materials re-4
covery facility’’ does not include a solid waste 5
management facility that may process munic-6
ipal solid waste to remove recyclable materials. 7
(6) P
ILOT GRANT PROGRAM .—The term ‘‘pilot 8
grant program’’ means the Recycling Infrastructure 9
and Accessibility Program established under sub-10
section (b). 11
(7) R
ECYCLABLE MATERIAL .—The term ‘‘recy-12
clable material’’ means obsolete, previously used, off- 13
specification, surplus, or incidentally produced mate-14
rial for processing into a specification-grade com-15
modity for which a market exists. 16
(8) T
RANSFER STATION.—The term ‘‘transfer 17
station’’ means a facility that— 18
(A) receives and consolidates recyclable 19
material from curbside recycling or drop-off fa-20
cilities; and 21
(B) loads the recyclable material onto trac-22
tor trailers, railcars, or barges for transport to 23
a distant materials recovery facility or another 24
recycling-related facility. 25
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(9) UNDERSERVED COMMUNITY .—The term 1
‘‘underserved community’’ means a community, in-2
cluding an unincorporated area, without access to 3
full recycling services because— 4
(A) transportation, distance, or other rea-5
sons render utilization of available processing 6
capacity at an existing materials recovery facil-7
ity cost prohibitive; or 8
(B) the processing capacity of an existing 9
materials recovery facility is insufficient to 10
manage the volume of recyclable materials pro-11
duced by that community. 12
(b) E
STABLISHMENT.—Not later than 18 months 13
after the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator 14
shall establish a pilot grant program, to be known as the 15
‘‘Recycling Infrastructure and Accessibility Program’’, to 16
award grants, on a competitive basis, to eligible entities 17
to improve recycling accessibility in a community or com-18
munities within the same geographic area. 19
(c) G
OAL.—The goal of the pilot grant program is 20
to fund eligible projects that will significantly improve ac-21
cessibility to recycling systems through investments in in-22
frastructure in underserved communities through the use 23
of a hub-and-spoke model for recycling infrastructure de-24
velopment. 25
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(d) APPLICATIONS.—To be eligible to receive a grant 1
under the pilot grant program, an eligible entity shall sub-2
mit to the Administrator an application at such time, in 3
such manner, and containing such information as the Ad-4
ministrator may require. 5
(e) C
ONSIDERATIONS.—In selecting eligible entities 6
to receive a grant under the pilot grant program, the Ad-7
ministrator shall consider— 8
(1) whether the community or communities in 9
which the eligible entity is seeking to carry out a 10
proposed project has curbside recycling; 11
(2) whether the proposed project of the eligible 12
entity will improve accessibility to recycling services 13
in a single underserved community or multiple un-14
derserved communities; and 15
(3) if the eligible entity is a public-private part-16
nership, the financial health of the private entity 17
seeking to enter into that public-private partnership. 18
(f) P
RIORITY.—In selecting eligible entities to receive 19
a grant under the pilot grant program, the Administrator 20
shall give priority to eligible entities seeking to carry out 21
a proposed project in a community in which there is not 22
more than 1 materials recovery facility within a 75-mile 23
radius of that community. 24
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(g) USE OFFUNDS.—An eligible entity awarded a 1
grant under the pilot grant program may use the grant 2
funds for projects to improve recycling accessibility in 3
communities, including in underserved communities, by— 4
(1) increasing the number of transfer stations; 5
(2) expanding curbside recycling collection pro-6
grams where appropriate; and 7
(3) leveraging public-private partnerships to re-8
duce the costs associated with collecting and trans-9
porting recyclable materials in underserved commu-10
nities. 11
(h) P
ROHIBITION ONUSE OFFUNDS.—An eligible 12
entity awarded a grant under the pilot grant program may 13
not use the grant funds for projects relating to recycling 14
education programs. 15
(i) M
INIMUM ANDMAXIMUMGRANTAMOUNT.—A 16
grant awarded to an eligible entity under the pilot grant 17
program shall be in an amount— 18
(1) not less than $500,000; and 19
(2) not more than $15,000,000. 20
(j) S
ET-ASIDE.—The Administrator shall set aside 21
not less than 70 percent of the amounts made available 22
to carry out the pilot grant program for each fiscal year 23
to award grants to eligible entities to carry out a proposed 24
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project or program in a single underserved community or 1
multiple underserved communities. 2
(k) F
EDERALSHARE.— 3
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Subject to paragraph (2), 4
the Federal share of the cost of a project or pro-5
gram carried out by an eligible entity using grant 6
funds shall be not more than 90 percent. 7
(2) W
AIVER.—The Administrator may waive 8
the Federal share requirement under paragraph (1) 9
if the Administrator determines that an eligible enti-10
ty would experience significant financial hardship as 11
a result of that requirement. 12
(l) R
EPORT.—Not later than 2 years after the date 13
on which the first grant is awarded under the pilot grant 14
program, the Administrator shall submit to Congress a re-15
port describing the implementation of the pilot grant pro-16
gram, which shall include— 17
(1) a list of eligible entities that have received 18
a grant under the pilot grant program; 19
(2) the actions taken by each eligible entity that 20
received a grant under the pilot grant program to 21
improve recycling accessibility with grant funds; and 22
(3) to the extent information is available, a de-23
scription of how grant funds received under the pilot 24
grant program improved recycling rates in each com-25
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munity in which a project or program was carried 1
out under the pilot grant program. 2
(m) A
UTHORIZATION OFAPPROPRIATIONS.— 3
(1) I
N GENERAL.—There is authorized to be 4
appropriated to the Administrator to carry out the 5
pilot grant program $30,000,000 for each of fiscal 6
years 2025 through 2029, to remain available until 7
expended. 8
(2) A
DMINISTRATIVE COSTS AND TECHNICAL 9
ASSISTANCE.—Of the amounts made available under 10
paragraph (1), the Administrator may use up to 5 11
percent— 12
(A) for administrative costs relating to car-13
rying out the pilot grant program; and 14
(B) to provide technical assistance to eligi-15
ble entities applying for a grant under the pilot 16
grant program. 17
Æ
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