Today, in conjunction with America Recycles Day, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing a $1,547,635 Recycling Education and Outreach (REO) grant to Recycle Hawai’i. Recycle Hawai’i’s proposed project empowers three cohorts of Hawaii-based student resource ambassadors to design and launch education campaigns aimed at: informing the public about the nexus between climate and waste, increasing awareness about the impacts of plastic pollution, increasing participation in community recycling events and decreasing contamination in the recycling stream.
“This grant, made possible by President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, will enable Recycle Hawai’i to increase recycling rates in the community it serves through in-person engagement and education,” said EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator Martha Guzman. “Recycling, reducing waste and composting are ways everyone can protect the environment and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”
“From the time the REO opportunity was first announced, we were inspired by the thoughtfulness the Biden/Harris Administration put into the program. The focus on community level engagement and the emphasis on sustainable materials management told us this would be a groundbreaking initiative. We are honored to be part of it and eager to get to work.” said Kristine Kubat, Executive Director of Recycle Hawai’i.
Recycling Education and Outreach grant projects will help inform the public about local recycling and composting programs and focus on increasing collection rates and decreasing contamination of recycling streams across the nation. These recycling grants will help tackle consumer confusion and outdated recycling infrastructure, the largest barriers to proper recycling.
Thanks to President Biden’s historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which was signed two years ago today, EPA was provided the largest recycling investment in 30 years. Many communities with environmental justice concerns carry a disproportionate environmental and human health burden from waste management. As part of President Biden’s Justice40 Initiative, 74% of the funding allocated in the REO grants will benefit underserved and overburdened communities. Increasing recycling is also an important way to reduce pollution because natural resource extraction and processing make up half of all global greenhouse gas emissions that drive the climate crisis. Recycling reduces the need to extract resources such as timber, water, and minerals for new products.
To learn more about the Recycling Education and Outreach funding, please visit: EPA’s Recipients and Selectees webpage.
America Recycles Day
Today marks both the 29th America Recycles Day, the second anniversary of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and the second anniversary of EPA’s National Recycling Strategy. The National Recycling Strategy was the first in a series of EPA strategies devoted to building a circular economy – one that reduces material use, redesigns materials, products, and services to be less resource intensive, and recaptures “waste” as a resource to manufacture new materials and products.
To build upon the goals of the recycling strategy, EPA released the Draft National Strategy to Prevent Plastic Pollution for public comment in April. The Draft Strategy outlines steps to reduce pollution during production, improve management of plastic materials throughout product lifecycles, and encourage actions to keep plastics out of national waterways and the environment. Future strategies will address food waste and electronics.
Visit EPA’s website to learn more ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle.
Learn more about America Recycles Day.