EPA announces grant opportunity for food waste management projects

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced it will fund projects from states, tribes, territories and nonprofit organizations to help reduce food loss and waste and divert food waste from landfills by expanding anaerobic digester (AD) capacity in the United States.

According to a news release from the EPA, the organization is awarding up to $2 million in total AD funding. Individual projects could be in the range of $50,000 to $200,000 for the funding period of two years. 

All applications must achieve one or more of the following objectives: 

• develop new or expand existing AD capacity for processing food waste;
• demonstrate solutions and/or approaches for increasing food waste AD utilization that can be replicated by other communities, governments or other entities; and
• support state, tribal and/or local government programs that seek to use AD to increase their food waste diversion rates. 

The following entities are eligible to apply: 

• state, local, tribal, interstate and intrastate government agencies and instrumentalities; and 
• nonprofit organizations (as defined by 2 CFR Part 200) that are not 501(c)(4) organizations that lobby, including nonprofit educational institutions and nonprofit hospitals. 

In addition, up to $800,000 of the estimated total will be set aside for awards to the following organizations: 

• U.S. territories; 
• tribal governments; 
• tribal colleges and universities; or 
• eligible organizations located in persistent poverty counties. 

Applications are due by Oct. 7. The EPA also will host a webinar at 3 p.m. ET Aug. 21 to discuss the grant opportunity.