EPA offers grants to help reduce food loss and waste

In an effort to reduce food loss and waste, municipalities can seek grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for projects that divert food waste from landfills and help expand the country’s anaerobic digester capacity.

Anaerobic digester technology generates renewable energy in the form of biogas and produces digestate, a material that can improve soil health.

The EPA expects to award up to $3 million for food-waste projects, with individual applicants receiving awards ranging from $50,000 to $300,000. The application is open to local, tribal, interstate and intrastate government agencies, as well as nonprofits.

The EPA expects to award anywhere from 10 to 40 grants during this funding process. To be considered, applications must satisfy one or more of the following objectives:
• Support state, tribal and/or local government programs that seek to use anaerobic digester technology to increase their organic waste diversion rates or support other sustainability goals
• Demonstrate and/or implement solutions and/or approaches for increasing anaerobic digester use that can be replicated by other communities or governments
• Establish new partnerships or expand existing partnerships that result in the development of anaerobic digester capacity

The application deadline is July 14.

For more information, visit Grants.gov (under Funding Opportunity Announcement EPA-OLEM-ORCR-20-02), or by visiting the EPA Anaerobic Digestion Funding Opportunity web page.

The EPA will hold an informational webinar about the grants and application process on June 2 at 1 p.m. Register for the webinar.