The Rural Utilities Service (RUS or the Agency), an agency within the Rural Development (RD) mission area of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), is announcing the acceptance of applications for the Solid Waste Management Grants (SWMG) Program for 2026.
Donor Name: Rural Utilities Service
State: All States
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 12/31/2025
Size of the Grant: More than $1 million
Grant Duration: 1 Year
Details:
The SWMG Program is designed to help qualified, eligible organizations that provide technical assistance and training to:
- Provide technical assistance and/or training to reduce the solid waste stream through reduction, recycling, and reuse.
- Provide training to enhance operator skills in maintaining and operating active landfills.
- Provide technical assistance and/or training for operators of landfills which are closed or will be closed in the near future with the development/implementation of closure plans, future land use plans, safety and maintenance planning, and closure scheduling within permit requirements.
- Evaluate current landfill conditions to determine the threats to water resources.
Funding Information
Funding is anticipated to be approximately $4,000,000.
Performance Period
October 1, 2026 to September 30, 2027
Eligibility Criteria
- Entities eligible for grants must either be:
- Private nonprofit organizations with tax exempt status designated by the Internal Revenue Service. A nonprofit organization is defined as any corporation, trust, association, cooperative, or other organization that:
- Is operated primarily for scientific, education, service, charitable, or similar purposes in the public interest.
- Is not organized primarily for profit.
- Uses its net proceeds to maintain, improve, and/or expand its operations.
- Public bodies.
- Federally acknowledged or State-recognized Native American Tribe or group.
- Academic institutions.
- Private nonprofit organizations with tax exempt status designated by the Internal Revenue Service. A nonprofit organization is defined as any corporation, trust, association, cooperative, or other organization that:
- Entities must be legally established and located within a state as defined
- Organizations must be incorporated by December 31 of the year the application period occurs to be eligible for funds.
- Private businesses, Federal agencies, and individuals are ineligible for these grants.
- Applicants must also have the proven ability; background; experience, as evidenced by the organization’s satisfactory completion of project(s) similar to those proposed; legal authority; and actual capacity to provide technical assistance and/or training on a regional basis to associations as provided in § 1775.63.
- To meet the requirement of actual capacity, an applicant must either:
- Have the necessary resources to provide technical assistance and/or training to associations in rural areas through its staff, or
- Be assisted by an affiliate or member organization which has such background and experience and which agrees, in writing, that it will provide the assistance, or
- Contract with a nonaffiliated organization for not more than 49 percent of the grant to provide the proposed assistance
For more information, visit Grants.gov.
