Residential Curbside Recycling Cart Grant

This grant program summary is provided to help potential applicants gain a quick understanding of this grant program and its broad requirements. Specific program parameters and requirements are explained again in greater detail throughout the body of the RFP document, and applicants should carefully read this entire document prior to submitting a proposal.

Eligibility: Grant funding is available to support publicly sponsored curbside recycling programs. The applicant must be a local government, solid waste authority, or federally recognized tribe. Funding is only available to communities seeking to implement cart-based curbside recycling programs. Grant funding is not available to replace existing carts, to support the purchase of carts for waste or organics collection, or to support the collection of recyclables from businesses, schools, or institutions. The grant program offers funding to support the purchase of recycling carts and to implement recycling education and outreach efforts. Grants are not available for education and outreach alone.

Cart and Collection Frequency Requirements: In order to qualify for grant funding, a community must be seeking to purchase carts that are at least 60+ gallons in volume and must collect curbside recyclables on a weekly or every-other-week basis. If planning to collect every-other-week, then a community must be seeking to purchase carts that are at least 90+ gallons in volume. Carts purchased with Recycling Partnership grant funding must contain a minimum of five percent (5%) residential post-consumer plastic content and should be embedded with a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag.

Education and Outreach Assistance: The Recycling Partnership has developed a tested and proven approach to supporting education and outreach in communities that are implementing cart-based recycling. Grantees must agree to use select elements of The Partnership’s campaign materials and must also partner with The Partnership to deploy an outreach campaign during the months prior to the rollout of carts. Required education and outreach activities include a direct-to-resident information card informing citizens about the availability/impending distribution of recycling carts, a kit of information delivered with the cart, and the use of oops tags or other anti-contamination strategies to reinforce correct recycling behavior after carts have been delivered. Grant funding at the level of $1 per household is provided to support the implementation of these items.