[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3237 Introduced in House (IH)]

114th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3237

 To authorize the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency 
  to award grants for municipal solid waste prevention and recycling 
              program development, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 28, 2015

 Mr. Ellison introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                    Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To authorize the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency 
  to award grants for municipal solid waste prevention and recycling 
              program development, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Zero Waste Development and Expansion 
Act''.

SEC. 2. GRANT PROGRAM.

    The Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (in this 
Act referred to as the ``Administrator'') shall award grants to local 
governments or consortia of local governments, which may be acting in 
coordination with one or more nongovernmental entities. The grants 
shall be used to develop solid waste prevention and recycling tactics 
and operations, which may include--
            (1) development or deployment of technologies or practices 
        to increase rates of waste prevention, recycling, composting, 
        or product reuse;
            (2) capital investment in infrastructure to start or expand 
        waste prevention, recycling, composting, or product reuse 
        programs;
            (3) partnerships with local businesses interested in 
        incorporating new technologies or processes to reduce or 
        prevent waste in production or packaging; or
            (4) community outreach and public education programming, 
        including programming to--
                    (A) increase community knowledge of effective waste 
                prevention, recycling, composting, or product reuse 
                practices; and
                    (B) increase behavior that will reduce overall 
                household waste generation.

SEC. 3. GRANT REVIEW.

    (a) Grant Awardees.--Grants shall be awarded under this Act to 
applicants that collectively represent a range of existing waste 
prevention, recycling, composting, and product reuse rates. In order to 
be considered for this award, applicants must--
            (1) set specific waste prevention, recycling, composting, 
        product reuse, or public education goals that will bring 
        communities closer to zero waste;
            (2) have a clearly established plan to use grant funds for 
        one or more of the purposes described in section 2; and
            (3) meet other criteria as determined by the Administrator.
    (b) Additional Factors.--Additional weight may be given to the 
applications of local governments or consortia that--
            (1) have statutorily committed to zero waste principles;
            (2) demonstrate job creation;
            (3) address the disproportionate environmental, health, and 
        economic burden of waste disposal that is borne by communities 
        of color and low income;
            (4) propose to use funds for waste prevention or recycling 
        programs in schools;
            (5) employ adaptive management practices to identify and 
        address unintended consequences as they arise, including 
        potential contamination of land, water, air, or food;
            (6) have a demonstrated need for additional investment in 
        infrastructure and programs to achieve waste prevention or 
        recycling;
            (7) will drive technologies for product reuse, recycling, 
        composting, or waste prevention;
            (8) demonstrate ways in which the grant will encourage 
        further investment in waste prevention, recycling, composting, 
        or product reuse projects; or
            (9) incorporate multistakeholder involvement, including 
        nonprofit, commercial, and public sector partners.

SEC. 4. REPORTING.

    Grant awardees shall report to the Administrator the results of 
their project and relevant data requested by the Administrator to track 
the grant program's impact.

SEC. 5. ANNUAL CONFERENCE.

    The Administrator shall convene or co-convene an annual conference 
for current, past, and potential grantees, and other stakeholders, to 
learn from each other's experiences in moving toward a zero waste goal.

SEC. 6. DEFINITION.

    In this Act, the term ``recycling'' means a series of activities by 
which material that has reached the end of its current use is processed 
into material utilized in the production of new products.

SEC. 7. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    There are authorized to be appropriated to the Administrator 
$100,000,000 for the period encompassing fiscal years 2016 through 2021 
for carrying out this Act.
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