I 

115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1034 

To authorize the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to 

award grants for municipal solid waste prevention, reuse, and recycling 

program development, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

FEBRUARY 14, 2017 

Mr. ELLISON (for himself, Ms. LEE, Mr. QUIGLEY, Mr. CARTWRIGHT, and 

Ms. NORTON) 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, reuse, and recycling program development, 

and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Zero Waste Develop5 ment and Expansion Act of 2017’’. 

6 SEC. 2. GRANT PROGRAM. 

7 The Administrator of the Environmental Protection 

8 Agency (in this Act referred to as the ‘‘Administrator’’) 

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1 shall award grants to local governments or consortia of 

2 local governments, which may be acting in coordination 

3 with one or more nongovernmental entities. The grants 

4 shall be used to develop solid waste prevention, reuse, and 

5 recycling tactics and operations, which may include— 

6 (1) development or deployment of technologies 

7 or practices to increase rates of waste prevention, 

8 reuse, recycling, or composting; 

9 (2) capital investment in infrastructure to start 

10 or expand waste prevention, reuse, recycling, 

11 composting, or product reuse programs; 

12 (3) partnerships with local businesses interested 

13 in incorporating new technologies or processes to re14 duce or prevent waste in production or packaging; or 

15 (4) community outreach and public education 

16 programming, including programming to— 

17 (A) increase community knowledge of ef18 fective waste prevention, reuse, recycling, or 

19 composting; and 

20 (B) increase behavior that will reduce over21 all household waste generation. 

22 SEC. 3. GRANT REVIEW. 

23 (a) GRANT AWARDEES.—Grants shall be awarded 

24 under this Act to applicants that collectively represent a 

25 range of existing waste prevention, reuse, recycling, and 

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1 composting rates. In order to be considered for this award, 

2 applicants must— 

3 (1) set specific waste prevention, reuse, recy4 cling, composting, or public education goals that will 

5 bring communities closer to zero waste; 

6 (2) have a clearly established plan to use grant 

7 funds for one or more of the purposes described in 

8 section 2; and 

9 (3) meet other criteria as determined by the 

10 Administrator. 

11 (b) ADDITIONAL FACTORS.—Additional weight may 

12 be given to the applications of local governments or con13 sortia that— 

14 (1) have statutorily committed to zero waste 

15 principles; 

16 (2) demonstrate job creation; 

17 (3) have partnerships with domestic manufac18 turers who will use locally recycled materials to spur 

19 the growth of domestic manufacturing businesses 

20 and the creation of domestic manufacturing jobs; 

21 (4) address the disproportionate environmental, 

22 health, and economic burden of waste disposal that 

23 is borne by communities of color and low income; 

24 (5) propose to use funds for waste prevention, 

25 reuse, or recycling programs in schools; 

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1 (6) employ adaptive management practices to 

2 identify and address unintended consequences as 

3 they arise, including potential contamination of land, 

4 water, air, or food; 

5 (7) have a demonstrated need for additional in6 vestment in infrastructure and programs to achieve 

7 waste prevention, reuse, or recycling; 

8 (8) will drive technologies for product reuse, re9 cycling, composting, or waste prevention; 

10 (9) demonstrate ways in which the grant will 

11 encourage further investment in waste prevention, 

12 reuse, recycling, or composting projects; or 

13 (10) incorporate multistakeholder involvement, 

14 including nonprofit, commercial, and public sector 

15 partners. 

16 SEC. 4. REPORTING. 

17 Grant awardees shall report to the Administrator the 

18 results of their project and relevant data requested by the 

19 Administrator to track the grant program’s impact. 

20 SEC. 5. ANNUAL CONFERENCE. 

21 The Administrator shall convene or co-convene an an22 nual conference for current, past, and potential grantees, 

23 and other stakeholders, to learn from each other’s experi24 ences in moving toward a zero waste goal. 

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1 SEC. 6. DEFINITIONS. 

2 In this Act: 

3 (1) RECYCLING.—The term ‘‘recycling’’ means 

4 processing material that has reached the end of its 

5 current use into material utilized in the production 

6 of new products. The term does not include inciner7 ation. 

8 (2) REUSE.—The term ‘‘reuse’’ means extend9 ing the life of a product, packaging, or resources by 

10 either using it more than once for the same or a new 

11 function with little to no processing, or repairing it 

12 so it can be used longer, sharing or renting it, or 

13 selling or donating it to another party. The term 

14 does not include incineration. 

15 (3) WASTE PREVENTION.—The term ‘‘waste 

16 prevention’’ includes— 

17 (A) measures or techniques that reduce the 

18 amount of wastes generated during industrial 

19 production processes; and 

20 (B) reuse, recycling, and other efforts to 

21 reduce the amount of waste going into the 

22 waste stream. 

23 (4) ZERO WASTE.—The term ‘‘zero waste’’ is a 

24 goal that is ethical, economical, efficient, and vision25 ary, to guide people in changing their lifestyles and 

26 practices to emulate sustainable natural cycles, 

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1 where all discarded materials are designed to become 

2 resources for others to use. Zero waste means de3 signing and managing products and processes to sys4 tematically avoid and eliminate the volume and tox5 icity of waste and materials, conserve and recover all 

6 resources, and not burn or bury them. Implementing 

7 zero waste will eliminate all discharges to land, 

8 water, or air that are a threat to planetary, human, 

9 animal, or plant health. 

10 SEC. 7. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

11 There are authorized to be appropriated to the Ad12 ministrator $100,000,000 for the period encompassing fis13 cal years 2018 through 2023 for carrying out this Act. 

Æ 

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