Lamont Announces $7.5M Now Available To Support Municipalities With Sustainable Waste Reduction

Governor Ned Lamont today announced that $7.5 million in state funding is now available to support Connecticut’s municipalities in their efforts to increase recycling and diversion and augment their self-sufficiency in managing municipal solid waste disposal.

“The state is continuing to help our towns and cities identify sustainable ways to dispose of waste and realize savings,” Governor Lamont said. “With local options for solid waste disposal shrinking and the cost to dispose of waste out of state rising, this grant opportunity gives municipalities more control of their disposal costs and more creative options that are also good for the environment.”

The Sustainable Materials Management Grant Program, administered by the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), has opened a request for applications (RFA) for a second round of grants, which are aimed at supporting the development of food scrap collection and unit-based pricing programs, as well as other reduction, recycling, and diversion programs. Many of the strategies that will be funded by these grants were recommended by the Connecticut Coalition for Sustainable Materials Management, a coalition of more than a hundred municipalities across Connecticut that are working to develop strategies to reduce waste and increase reuse and recycling.

“Municipal leaders throughout the state know first-hand that the easiest way to reduce the cost of managing municipal solid waste is to reduce the amount of waste being created in the first place,” DEEP Commissioner Katie Dykes said. “The funding we’re announcing today will do just that – reduce the amount of organic waste simply being thrown in the trash and instead redirect it to more beneficial uses like composting. We know from the first round of this grant program that these strategies really work, bringing down costs for towns while at the same time contributing to Connecticut’s self-sufficiency. We are grateful for the leadership of Governor Lamont and the General Assembly for authorizing these dollars to combat the waste crisis and look forward to continuing our work with municipalities in bringing down their waste disposal costs.”

“It’s great to see the Sustainable Materials Management program be granted $7.5 million more to help our state’s environment,” State Representative John-Michael Parker (D-Madison), co-chair of the legislature’s Environment Committee, said. “Programs funded through this grant will help develop innovative new ways of using our resources, especially food scraps, and I can’t wait to see how our state uses this grant money. Thank you to all my colleagues for their work securing these funds.”

The $7.5 million announced today under this second round builds on the program’s first round, which funded pilot programs in fifteen municipalities and three regional entities, supporting a variety of piloted food scraps diversion programs that included unit-based pricing elements. These pilot programs provided a wealth of data across a diverse subset of Connecticut’s municipalities and demonstrated that a variety of approaches can be effective in reducing costs and environmental impacts associated with municipal solid waste disposal.

Grants are available for individual and groups of municipalities, as well as regional entities (councils of governments, regional planning agencies, resource recovery authorities, recycling operating committees, and regional waste authorities). Eligible applicants must submit a completed application in conformance with the RFA, which can be found on DEEP’s Municipal and Regional Grants and Technical Assistance webpage. Grant applications must be submitted to DEEP by Friday, June 27, 2025.

An informational session to address questions regarding the grant program will be held via Zoom on Monday, April 28, 2025, from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. To register for the informational session, click here. Questions about the RFA may be submitted to Michael.Looney@ct.gov.

DEEP launches RFP for waste characterization study

DEEP today also announced that it is launching a request for proposals (RFP) for a waste characterization study, which was requested by the waste industry and municipalities to better understand the composition of materials entering the waste and recycling streams in Connecticut. Last updated in 2015, this study will identify the types and amounts of waste generated within Connecticut, where that waste is disposed, and the volume of material diverted for recycling.

This RFP seeks a technical expert to perform the research, surveys, and field work required to complete the study, and to draft the study itself, with a scheduled completion date of October 31, 2026. Once completed, this study will help inform future waste policies at the state, regional and municipal levels.

Funding for both rounds of the Sustainable Materials Management Grant Program and the waste characterization study were proposed by Governor Lamont and approved by the state legislature and State Bond Commission.

Today’s announcement closely follows the recently announced Materials Management Infrastructure Grant Program awards, which provided nearly $15 million to support waste management infrastructure improvements in six municipalities and three regional organizations. Taken together, these programs represent an unprecedented investment in cost-effective, sustainable alternatives to traditional waste disposal operations and recommitment to data gathering and analysis. These announcements will provide municipalities and regional entities with the resources to implement programs that will achieve greater system reliability, environmental sustainability, and fiscal predictability.