Grant watch

Resource Recycling highlights recent industry-related grant awards and opportunities. If your company or organization has a funding opportunity to share, contact [email protected] to be included here.

June 17, 2025: The American Beverage Association and The Recycling Partnership invested $471,200 in three Massachusetts communities through the Every Bottle Back initiative to improve curbside recycling.

June 13, 2025: The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency is awarding $1.2 million in grants to 31 organizations to support recycling, litter prevention and clean-up projects in northwest Ohio. The funding is via the agency’s Recycle Ohio Grant program.

June 9, 2025: The Glass Recycling Foundation opened its 2025 applications for grants. Public and nonprofit organizations can apply for up to $30,000 to support projects that demonstrate new solutions or educate the public about the benefits of glass recycling. Applications are due July 16.

May 21, 2025: The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency announced $1 million total in grants for six projects that increase the efficiency and effectiveness of waste reduction, reuse, recycling, and composting. The projects include construction and demolition reuse projects, new recycling drop-off sites and a source-separated organics program.

May 7, 2025: The Indiana Department of Environmental Management opened grant applications for the Recycling Market Development Grant. Applications are due June 18 and grantees can receive $50,000 to $500,000, with a 50% required cash match, for projects that encourage and develop waste reduction, reuse and recycling.

May 7, 2025: The Composting Consortium, an initiative of Closed Loop Partners’ Center for the Circular Economy, launched a grant program to scale up processing of certified compostable food packaging and food scraps, in partnership with the U.S. Composting Council and the Biodegradable Products Institute. The application deadline is June 13. 

May 2, 2025: Kentucky awarded $6.2 million in grants for 70 projects focused on expanding recycling, increasing landfill diversion and improving the handling of household hazardous waste. Of that number, 28 were recycling grants, totalling about $3.8 million, for counties to purchase equipment.

April 30, 2025: Maui County, Hawai’i is holding an informational session on its 2026 Recycling Grants Program on May 7, 2025. There’s an estimated $600,000 to $1 million in funding available for landfill diversion projects. 

April 15, 2025: The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection launched a new recycling grant program targeted at waste reduction projects in the state. The Waste Reduction Innovation Grant will grant between $50,000 and $100,000 to 10 projects and between $500,000 and $2 million for four projects that will create advanced equipment or technology for reduction.

April 4, 2025: The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources opened applications for its E-Cycle Wisconsin Electronics Collection Grant, which can be used for electronics collection sites or events between June 2025 and December 2026. The application deadline is April 30.

April 1, 2025: Two MRFs in Alabama and California installed equipment to boost beverage cans capture, thanks to grants from the Can Manufacturers Institute’s MRF can capture program, which is funded by Ardagh Metal Packaging and Crown Holdings. Those are the seventh and eighth grants that AMP and Crown have financed. The Recycling Partnership administers the grants. 

April 1, 2025: The Carton Council is offering grants of up to $5,000 to U.S. and Canadian K-12 schools to establish, enhance or expand food and beverage carton recycling programs.

March 28, 2025: The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection awarded $16.2 million in grants to communities across the state, based on 2022 recycling performance. The monies come from the state’s Recycling Enhancement Act and are funded through a $3 per-ton tip surcharge. 

March 28, 2025: The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection awarded $15 million from its Materials Management Infrastructure grant program. Grants are targeted at developing small- to medium-scale diversion infrastructure. 

March 28, 2025: Applications for the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection’s Reduce, Reuse, Repair Micro-Grants will open April 15 and close on May 15. There is $125,000 available and MassDEP will host a virtual information session on April 1.

March 18, 2025: The Foodservice Packaging Institute’s Foam Recycling Coalition opened 2025 applications for its grant program. Facility operators, non-profits and solid waste authorities can apply for grants of up to $50,000 to help establish or enhance foam polystyrene recycling. The application deadline is April 15.

March 18, 2025: The High Country Conservation Center and Summit County, Colorado, are offering grant funding for local nonprofits, businesses, homeowners associations, schools and government agencies for projects that increase diversion, recycling and composting. The deadline to apply is June 1.March 17, 2025: The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy opened applications for grants for projects that promote and support the cleanup and reuse of scrap tires in the state. The application deadline is April 18.

March 10, 2025: The Indiana Department of Environmental Management awarded American Resources Corporation’s subsidiary Electrified Materials a $911,519 matching grant from the Waste Diversion Project. Electrified Materials recycles rare earth magnets.

Feb. 28, 2025: New York-based Empire State Development launched the Business Food Waste Mitigation Grant Program, a $4 million initiative aimed at reducing food waste from large-scale businesses via capital equipment funding for municipalities and nonprofit organizations.

Feb. 28, 2025: The New Mexico Clean and Beautiful 2026 grant application cycle will open March 4 and close April 4. The grants are for municipalities, counties, Tribal Governments and units of government for use on litter eradication and waste reduction. 

Feb. 26, 2025: CARE California Carpet Stewardship Program distributed 15 grants totaling $881,000 to 14 entities to expand convenient collection, improve fiber identification and better handle difficult-to-recycle post-consumer carpet components. It also opened the next round of grants, with applications due March 31.

Feb. 13, 2025: Grants funded by Ardagh Metal Packaging and Crown Holdings provided the Baldwin County MRF in Alabama and Cal-Waste Recovery Systems in California an eddy current and AI recognition technology, respectively, to capture 31 million additional aluminum beverage cans per year.

Feb. 7, 2025: Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania opened up grant applications for municipalities that want to host electronic recycling events. Up to seven municipalities can get up to $1,000 each to use to hire a vendor. 

Feb. 5, 2025: Ohio-based Morrow County Recycling gave two $500 recycling grants to district schools to implement a student-led project related to reducing, reusing or recycling.

Jan. 27, 2025: The University of Akron in Ohio received a federal grant of $3.1 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop a new recycling technology to blend and purify mixed plastics.

Jan. 24, 2025: The Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy awarded $9.8 million in grants to support 136 projects covering litter reduction projects, recycling programs, scrap tire cleanups and collections for household hazardous waste, e-scrap and pharmaceuticals.

Jan. 17, 2025: The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation is accepting applications for the first round of solid waste materials management grants this year, closing April 11.

View past grants at the Grant Watch Archive