How to submit winning grant proposals

Earlier this fall, the Washington-based Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued requests for proposals for its two Bipartisan Infrastructure Law recycling grants—the Solid Waste Infrastructure for Recycling (SWIFR) grant program and the Consumer Recycling Education and Outreach (REO)—that are part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, also referred to as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

According to the EPA, the SWIFR grant program was authorized by the Save Our Seas 2.0 Act and funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The SWIFR grant program will provide $275 million in grant funding to implement strategies to improve recycling. The grant will allocate $55 million per year from 2022 to 2026 to remain available until expended.

The SWIFR grant program will provide grants to implement strategies to improve postconsumer materials management and infrastructure; support improvements to local postconsumer materials management and recycling programs; and assist local waste management authorities in making improvements to local waste management systems.

The REO grant program also has been funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. That grant program plans to award $75 million between 2022 to 2026 to fund projects that improve the effectiveness of residential and community recycling and composting programs through public education and outreach. Projects funded through this grant program will inform the public about residential or community recycling or composting programs; provide information about the materials that are accepted as part of residential or community recycling or composting programs; and increase collection rates and decrease contamination levels.

Gershman, Brickner & Bratton Inc. (GBB), Vienna, Virginia, hosted a webinar in early December 2022 titled, “Winning Proposals for Your Community,” to provide insights on how grant applicants can create better proposals for the SWIFR and REO grant programs.

“Our goal is to provide our expertise about what makes for innovative, equitable, high-impact recycling projects,” said Jennifer Porter, senior vice president and sustainability officer at GBB.

Start with evaluation

Before applying for a recycling grant program, GBB Consultant Paige Davis said potential applicants should evaluate their local and regional solid waste systems and infrastructure, identifying gaps in the system. She added that a potential applicant also should find the right partners to help with project design and implementation.

“To prepare a winning proposal for your community, you must not only have the right partners on planning, but you’re demonstrating how your community plans to progress the EPA’s priorities described in the 2022-2026 EPA Strategic Plan, the 2021 National Recycling Plan and the 2021 Build America, Buy Better Act,” Davis said. “These priorities include circularity and sustainable materials management, climate adaptation and mitigation, environmental justice and domestic procurement of materials.”

SWIFR request for application (RFA) applicants must demonstrate how projects progress at least one of several goals: tackling climate crisis; taking decisive action to advance environmental justice and civil rights; ensuring clean and safe water for all communities; and safeguarding and revitalizing communities. Davis said these concepts of circularity, climate mitigation and environmental justice are echoed in the 2021 National Recycling Strategy, in which the EPA provides a road map to achieve the nation’s recycling goal of 50 percent of the nation’s solid waste from landfills by 2030.

REO RFA applicants must indicate how their projects align with one of the following goals: improving markets for recycled commodities; increasing collection and improving materials management infrastructure; reducing recycled materials stream contamination; enhancing policies and programs to support circularity; and standardizing measurement and increasing data collection efforts. According to the EPA’s webpage explaining REO, REO projects will be funded under two tracks:

• Track 1 -- Projects that benefit disadvantaged communities as defined in the RFA. The EPA says it expects about 40 percent (or $12 million) of REO funding will be awarded to projects that benefit disadvantaged communities.
• Track 2 -- Projects that benefit all other communities that do not meet the definition of disadvantaged communities.

For REO applicants, Davis said it will be important to clarify projects’ environmental justice concepts in the RFA. She said Track 1 of REO involves the federal government’s Justice40 Initiative, which aims to ensure that 40 percent of the overall benefits of certain federal investments flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized, underserved and overburdened by pollution.

She said, “Environmental justice principles, such as meaningful involvement and engagement of community members and ensuring that the environmental burden is equally distributed, should be incorporated into all proposals.”

Other tools and considerations

During the webinar, Eugenia Manwelyan, a GBB project manager, said the EPA offers several tools that can be helpful when developing a SWIFR or REO grant application.

One tool is the EPA Model Recycling Program Toolkit, which is an interactive collection of materials that can help applicants create effective programs for recycling, composting, anaerobic digestion, reuse, repair and waste reduction. Manwelyan said the EPA organized the toolkit materials by category. It includes case studies, training materials, consumer education materials, standardized terms and a grantee evaluation guide to measure program participation levels, contamination levels and change in volume of recyclables collected.

She said, “We absolutely encourage you to spend time on the site, explore the resources and determine how you might use it in your work.”

Manwelyan said she would recommend applicants also explore the EPA's Environmental Justice Screening and Mapping Tool (EJScreen), which combines EJ and demographic indicators in maps and reports. The public screening and mapping tool identifies communities that may be overburdened by pollution and to help agencies incorporate environmental justice into environmental programs, including permitting, compliance and outreach. The EJScreen provides a community-level evaluation of vulnerability by using census block group data and 12 EJ indicators, such as proximity to hazardous waste, as well as seven socioeconomic indicators, such as racial status and household income.

Additionally, Manwelyan said the EPA offers a Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool, which helps agencies identify communities that benefit from the federal government's Justice40 Initiative. Although this tool is like the EJScreen in that it uses geographic information system tools to identify communities potentially impacted by legacy environmental pollution, the tool differs in purpose and data sets. The Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool's data set includes census data, labels areas using eight categories of burden and uses 12 environmental indicators from EJScreen.

Manwelyan said a few questions should be considered when developing a proposal for either the SWIFR or REO grants:

• How can your project offer value? Is it a case study or a road map for other communities?
• How do you plan on measuring your impact outcome? What defines success?
• How will your program make a difference to improve recycling in your community or region?
• How do you improve your capacity to implement the program and manage this grant?

Manwelyan concluded that it’s important for applicants to show their available resources and level of commitment to a project. She added that applicants also want to ensure the project will address and correct for environmental injustices while also promoting environmental justice in marginalized communities.