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

This $954,687 Project Grant awarded by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Reduce, Reuse, Recycling Education and Outreach (REO) Grants program (CFDA 66.921) will fund the Salt Lake City Corporation's efforts to enhance residential and community recycling programs in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The grant will enable the Salt Lake City Corporation to engage low-income and disadvantaged community members through a communication campaign, recycling ambassador program, and collection events for hard-to-recycle items, electronic waste, and household hazardous waste. The key objectives are to increase public awareness of recycling programs, provide information on accepted materials, and boost participation rates while reducing contamination. The corporation will sub-award a portion of the funding to the Utah Recycling Alliance to build capacity and conduct outreach activities such as trash talks, collection events, and fix-it clinics. The anticipated outcomes include a 5% increase in curbside recycling and composting participation on Salt Lake City's westside, a 5% reduction in recycling contamination, and the collection of an additional 1,547 tons of municipal solid waste for recycling, composting, and proper disposal, resulting in a 4,143 MTCO2e reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

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 salt lake city corporation's efforts to meet the REO grants elements. Specifically, the salt lake city corporation will promote the role of reuse, reduce, and recycle (R3) to achieve zero waste by 2040 by engaging, building trust, and increasing awareness and participation of low-income and disadvantaged members of salt lake city, utah, in residential and community recycling programs. Activities:the grantee will promote the role of reuse, reduce, and recycle (R3) to achieve zero waste by 2040 by engaging, building trust, and increasing awareness and participation of low-income and disadvantaged members of salt lake city, utah, in residential and community recycling programs. The grantee's methods include meaningful environmental justice engagement to inform a communication campaign augmented with R3 outreach and education activities, a recycling ambassador program, and community recycling collection events for hard to recycle items, electronic waste, and household hazardous waste. The objectives of this project are to: 1) inform the public about residential and community recycling programs; 2) provide information about recycled materials accepted by residential and community recycling programs; and 3) increase collection rates and decrease contamination in residential and community recycling programs. Subrecipient:a subaward will go to the utah recycling alliance (URA), a non-profit organization. Their first task is for personnel costs to build agency capacity to aid in the salt lake city's reuse, reduce, and recycle for a waste free salt lake city. This will also include a computer purchase for URA. The second task for URA will be conducting 18 trash talks, 9 collections of hard to recycle materials events, 14 single-item drop-off collections, and 16 fix-IT clinics. Supplies, storage costs and transportation costs are included are included in this second task. Outcomes:expected deliverables will include communication activities such as presentations made; social media posts and ADS; trainings completed; recyclables, electronic waste, and household hazardous waste collected; a benefit cost evaluation; and a replication toolkit. Anticipated outcomes are a 5% increase in participation on salt lake city's westside for residential curbside recycling and compost programs, a 5% reduction of contamination in the recycling stream, and an estimated 1,547 total tons of additional municipal solid waste collected, recycled, composted, and managed resulting in a reduction of 4,143 MTCO2E of greenhouse gas emissions. The intended beneficiary is salt lake city, in particular the westside community of salt lake city.