This agreement provides funding from the infrastructure investment and jobs act (IIJA)

EPA's consumer recycling education and outreach (REO) grant program will fund a range of projects that will increase waste prevention activities, increase the collection of recyclable materials and program participation rates, and decrease contamination of the recycling stream, fund projects that focus on commonly recycled materials such as municipal solid waste (e.g., plastics, aluminum, paper, glass, etc.), including food waste and organics, and/or fund projects and provide tools and technical assistance that will lead to long-term, sustained change, benefits, and support beyond the life of the grant. The purpose of this award is to enhance the city of tacoma's efforts to meet the REO grants elements. Specifically, the city of tacoma will continue its community ambassador program, install contamination reduction AI cameras, and undertake a waste characterization study.activities:this project consists of three activities. Activity 1 - EPA funds would help build on the community ambassador program pilot project by expanding the program to additional geographic areas, engaging youth ambassadors, adding a waste reduction tract, and mobilizing already trained ambassadors. Activity 2- the second outreach approach would focus on a broader educational campaign using individualized feedback generated from AI camera technology on SWM's collections vehicles. Activity 3 - the impact of these two approaches will be measured through two waste characterization studies of the recycling and food and yard waste streams. Subrecipient:a key component of the project are subawards in the amount of $24,300 to nonprofit organization safe streets, $26,800 to nonprofit organization tahoma indian center, $59,700 to nonprofit organization salishan association and $59,700 to latinx run the USA over the course of the performance period to support the community ambassador program (cap). Additionally, tacoma plans to work with a nonprofit organization serving the slavic-speaking community and have earmarked $29,300 as a subaward for that partnership. The subaward will only be for personnel compensation and activities related to the recruitment, training design, training delivery, and participant stipend distribution related to the tasks and goals of the cap. Another key component of the cap is to fund an ambassador summit attracting at least 50 ambassadors three times over the performance period. Costs for partner staff support will be paid at the same rate as the other support for the cap.outcomes:the anticipated deliverables include increase waste collection materials access by translating into 6 commonly spoken languages, supporting 5 community based organizations, conducting 60 community ambassador trainings (20 not in english), developing a recuritment strategy to increase engagement of disadvantaged communities, hold an annual ambassador summit, create a multi-language newsletter, and provide 250,000 residents with direct feedback on their recycling activities. The expected outcomes and outputs are as follows: 1. Number of outreach campaigns or projects implemented - 60 trainings and support 25 community trainers and 600 ambassadors. 2. Change in participating rate of the tacoma recycling program - the number of participants in the recycling program in the city of tacoma will be tracked over the course of the grant program. 3. Total tons of MSW collected, recycled, composted, or managed via other management pathways as a result of the activities funded with the grant, including the percentage change from the baseline and GHG emissions reduced (in MTCO2E). - reduction of greenhouse gas emissions will be measured through the increased participation in the city of tacoma environmental services recycling and food waste collection systems. 4. Reduction of contamination in the recycling stream.#8239; the city plans to see a redu