[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4050 Introduced in House (IH)]
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116th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 4050
To direct the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to
award grants for projects that are consistent with zero-waste
practices, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
July 25, 2019
Ms. Omar (for herself, Mr. Grijalva, Ms. Norton, Ms. Haaland, Ms.
McCollum, Ms. Jayapal, Mr. Blumenauer, Mr. Johnson of Georgia, Ms.
Pressley, Ms. Pingree, and Ms. Moore) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To direct the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to
award grants for projects that are consistent with zero-waste
practices, 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 ``Zeroing Excess, Reducing Organic
Waste, and Sustaining Technical Expertise Act'' or the ``ZERO WASTE
Act''.
SEC. 2. GRANT PROGRAM.
(a) In General.--The Administrator shall establish and carry out a
program to award grants, on a competitive basis, to eligible entities
for projects that are consistent with zero-waste practices.
(b) Grant Use.--
(1) Organics recycling infrastructure.--An eligible entity
receiving a grant under this Act may use grant funds to carry
out a project relating to organics recycling infrastructure,
including facilities, machinery, equipment, and other physical
necessities required for organics collection or processing on a
city-wide or county-wide scale, provided that--
(A) implementation of such project--
(i) results in increased capacity for
residential and commercial source separated
organics streams; and
(ii) generates a usable product that has
demonstrable environmental benefits when
compared to the input materials, such as
compost with added nutritional content; and
(B) such project does not include mixed-waste
composting.
(2) Electronic waste reuse and recycling.--An eligible
entity receiving a grant under this Act may use grant funds to
carry out a project relating to electronic waste reuse or
recycling, including infrastructure and technology, research
and development, and product refurbishment, provided that such
project--
(A) does not include an electronic waste ``buy-
back'' program that provides compensation for used
electronics where such compensation is applied as a
credit toward the purchase of additional electronics;
and
(B) is carried out by an organization certified in
sustainable electronic waste standards by an
organization accredited by the National Accreditation
Board of the American National Standards Institute &
The American Society of Quality, or another accrediting
body as determined appropriate by the Administrator.
(3) Source reduction.--An eligible entity receiving a grant
under this Act may use grant funds to carry out a project
relating to source reduction, and such project may include--
(A) educational programming and outreach activities
to encourage behavioral changes in consumers that
result in source reduction; and
(B) product or manufacturing redesign or
redevelopment to reduce byproducts, packaging, and
other outputs if--
(i) the applicable manufacturer--
(I) is domestically-owned and
operated; and
(II) pays a living wage; and
(ii) the redevelopment or redesign does not
result in higher toxicity of the product or
byproducts, more complicated recyclability of
the product or byproducts, or increased volume
of byproducts compared with the original
practice.
(4) Market development.--An eligible entity receiving a
grant under this Act may use grant funds to carry out a project
relating to market development with respect to source reduction
and waste prevention, including by creating demand for sorted
recyclable commodities and refurbished goods and promoting
domestically-owned and operated manufacturing for projects
relating to source reduction or waste prevention, provided that
such project--
(A) targets easily or commonly recycled materials
which are disproportionately disposed of in landfills
or incinerated;
(B) addresses the reduction of the volume, weight,
or toxicity of waste and waste byproducts; and
(C) does not conflict with--
(i) minimum-content laws, such as post-
consumer recycled content requirements;
(ii) beverage container deposits;
(iii) programs funded through retail fees
for specific products or classes of products
that use such fees to collect, treat, or
recycle such products; or
(iv) any applicable recycled product
procurement laws and expanded sustainable
government purchasing requirements, as
identified by the Administrator.
SEC. 3. GRANT AWARDS.
(a) Application.--
(1) Criteria for all applicants.--To be eligible to receive
a grant under this Act, an eligible entity shall submit to the
Administrator an application at such time and in such form as
the Administrator requires, demonstrating that the eligible
entity--
(A) has set specific source reduction or waste
prevention targets;
(B) will carry out such project in communities that
are in the 80th percentile or higher for one or more
pollutants as noted in the EJSCREEN tool, or any
successor system, of the Environmental Protection
Agency; and
(C) will carry out a project that meets the
applicable project requirements under section 2(b).
(2) Additional application criteria for nonprofit
organization.--In the case of an application from an eligible
entity that is a nonprofit organization, the application shall
include a letter of support for the proposed project--
(A) from--
(i) a local unit of government; or--
(ii) a nonprofit organization that--
(I) has a demonstrated history of
undertaking work in the geographic
region where the proposed project is to
take place; and
(II) is not involved in the project
being proposed; and
(B) containing such information as the
Administrator may require.
(b) Priority Factors.--
(1) In general.--In awarding grants under this Act, the
Administrator shall give priority to eligible entities that--
(A) have statutorily committed to implementing
zero-waste practices;
(B) demonstrate how the project to be carried out
with grant funds could lead to the creation of new jobs
that pay a living wage, with preference for projects
that create jobs for individuals with barriers to
employment, as determined by the Administrator;
(C) will use grant funds for source reduction or
waste prevention in schools;
(D) will use grant funds to employ adaptive
management practices to identify, prevent, or address
any negative environmental consequences of the proposed
project;
(E) have a demonstrated need for additional
investment in infrastructure and projects to achieve
source reduction and waste prevention targets set by
the local unit of government that is responsible for
waste and recycling projects in the geographic area;
(F) will use grant funds to develop innovative or
new technologies and strategies for source reduction
and waste prevention;
(G) demonstrate how receiving the grant will
encourage further investment in source reduction and
waste prevention projects; or
(H) will incorporate multi-stakeholder involvement,
including nonprofit, commercial, and public sector
partners, in carrying out a project using grant funds.
(2) Zero-waste hierarchy.--In determining priority between
multiple eligible entities who qualify for priority under
paragraph (1), the Administrator shall grant first priority to
an eligible entity that can demonstrate how the zero-waste
hierarchy was considered with respect to the project to be
carried out with grant funds.
SEC. 4. REPORTING.
An eligible entity receiving a grant under this Act shall report to
the Administrator, at such time and in such form as the Administrator
may require, on the results of the project carried out with grant funds
and any relevant data requested by the Administrator to track the
effectiveness of the program established under section 2(a).
SEC. 5. ANNUAL CONFERENCE.
In each of calendar years 2022 through 2027, the Administrator
shall convene an annual conference for eligible entities, including
eligible entities that have received a grant under this Act, and other
stakeholders as identified by the Administrator, to provide an
opportunity for such eligible entities and stakeholders to share
experience and expertise in implementing zero-waste practices.
SEC. 6. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Adaptive management practices.--The term ``adaptive
management practices'' means, with respect to a project, the
integration of project design, management, and monitoring to
identify project impacts and outcomes as they arise and adjust
behaviors to improve outcomes.
(2) Administrator.--The term ``Administrator'' means the
Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.
(3) Domestically-owned and operated.--The term
``domestically-owned and operated'' means, with respect to a
business, a business with--
(A) headquarters located within the United States;
and
(B) primary operations carried out in the United
States.
(4) Eligible entity.--The term ``eligible entity'' means--
(A) a single unit of State, local, or Tribal
government;
(B) a consortium of multiple units of State, local,
or Tribal government;
(C) one or more units of State, local, or Tribal
government in coordination with for-profit or nonprofit
organizations; or
(D) one or more incorporated nonprofit
organizations.
(5) Embodied energy.--The term ``embodied energy'' means
energy that was used to create a product or material.
(6) Living wage.--The term ``living wage'' means the
minimum income necessary to allow a person working 40 hours per
week to afford the cost of housing, food, and other material
necessities.
(7) Organics recycling.--The term ``organics recycling''
means the biological processes by which organics streams are
converted to compost which is not harmful to humans, plants, or
animals.
(8) Recycling.--The term ``recycling''--
(A) means the mechanical processing of material
that has reached the end of its current use into
material to be used in the production of new products;
(B) does not include incineration or any other
energy recovery process; and
(C) does not include depolymerization or a similar
process.
(9) Reuse.--The term ``reuse''--
(A) means--
(i) using a product, packaging, or resource
more than once for the same or a new function
with little to no processing; or
(ii) repairing a product so it can be used
longer, sharing or renting it, or selling or
donating it to another party; and
(B) does not include incineration.
(10) Source reduction.--The term ``source reduction''--
(A) includes--
(i) activities that reduce consumption of
products or services that create physical
outputs, such as packaging, that is secondary
to the intended use of the item being consumed;
(ii) measures or techniques that reduce the
amount of waste generated during production
processes; and
(iii) the reduction or elimination of the
use of materials which are not able to be
recycled without degrading the quality of the
material; and
(B) does not include incineration.
(11) Source separated.--The term ``source separated''--
(A) means the separation of a stream of recyclable
materials at the point of waste creation before the
materials are collected and centralized; and
(B) does not include technologies that sort mixed
municipal solid waste into recyclable and non-
recyclable materials.
(12) Waste prevention.--The term ``waste prevention''
includes reuse, recycling, and other methods to reduce the
amount of materials disposed of in landfills or incinerated.
(13) Zero-waste.--The term ``zero-waste'' means the
conservation of all resources by means of responsible
production, consumption, reuse, and recovery of products,
packaging, and materials without burning or otherwise
destroying embodied energy, with no discharges to land, water,
or air that threaten the environment or human health.
(14) Zero-waste practice.--The term ``zero-waste practice''
means a practice used to help achieve zero-waste, including
source reduction and waste prevention.
SEC. 7. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
There is authorized to be appropriated to the Administrator to
carry out this Act $250,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2020
through 2027.
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