The Waste Reduction & Innovation Grant (WRIG) is available to businesses, institutions, schools, and non-profit organizations (‘businesses’) located in Ramsey and Washington counties to innovate and implement projects that will significantly reduce or prevent the creation of solid waste.
Donor Name: Ramsey/Washington Recycling & Energy (R&E)
State: Minnesota
County: Washington County (MN), Ramsey County (MN)
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 10/13/2023
Size of the Grant: Up to $50,000
Grant Duration: 18 months
Details:
Ramsey/Washington Recycling & Energy (R&E) offers grants to businesses and non-profits to implement projects that will advance R&E’s mission to enhance public health and the environment by creating value from waste through partnerships.
Waste reduction projects eliminate the use of materials from production and sales processes that end up being discarded. Waste reduction is the most environmentally preferred strategy. For businesses it can take many different forms, including reusing source materials, bulk purchasing, packaging changes, technology enhancements or production redesign.
Goals
The Waste Reduction and Innovation Grant has the following program goals:
- Increase waste reduction and recycling activities within the business community.
- Support source specific reduction, recycling, and reuse needs.
- Provide innovative solutions to waste reduction problems.
- Support sustainable solutions to ensure growth of on-site efforts by staff and contractual services related to waste reduction and recycling.
- Support efforts to manage operations higher on the waste management hierarchy as it relates to:
- waste reduction and reuse activities.
- market development activities.
- food recovery and donation.
- Composting/organics collection.
- hard to recycle materials/ source separated materials.
- large business, industrial and college campuses.
Funding Information
Funding for Waste Reduction & Innovation Grants are as follows:
- One-time grant of no less than $10,000 and up to $50,000 per business entity or business group.
- A 10% cash match to the project is required. Applicants may request a waiver to this requirement at the time of application if the match would be a financial barrier to project implementation. Waivers are awarded based on the discretion of R&E.
- Applicants may be eligible for more than one BizRecycling grant (i.e., Bin-Only, Recycling, Food Recovery and/or Waste Reduction & Innovation grants)
Uses of Funds
Proposed projects must demonstrate one or more of the following:
- Significantly reduce the amount of solid waste created by the business.
- Support the implementation of an industry-specific solution.
- Support an effort to manage waste higher on the EPA’s Waste Management Hierarchy.
Eligible Expenses
The following are eligible expenses to receive funding. If the business has an idea outside of the items listed below, consult with the Recycling Expert.
- Equipment & Materials
- Industry specific equipment and supplies that eliminate significant amounts of solid waste from the production process or capture materials for reuse.
- Equipment and supplies that move businesses from disposal items to reusable options.
- Up to 3 months or $2500 of subscription costs, whichever is less, to manage inventory/usage/donations of food and disposal items to reduce waste.
- Construction & Infrastructure
- Waste, recycling, and organics management infrastructure improvements among co-operative businesses located within the same building or business park.
- Infrastructure improvements to enhance industry specific waste reduction and recycling capabilities.
- Research & Development
- Industry-specific consultation costs to reduce the creation of solid waste at its source, which is beyond the expertise of R&E consultants.
- Costs related to the research and development activities of products or services that would significantly reduce solid waste in Ramsey and Washington County. The company must be located within Ramsey or Washington County.
- Staff or consultation time to develop environmentally preferable purchasing plans.
- Staff or consultation time to develop co-operative purchasing groups to leverage access to bulk materials which align with the business’s environmental purchasing plan.
- Education & Engagement
- Staff time to develop an onsite “Green Team”.
- Production and printing of custom signage, labels, and education materials.
- Other
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- Other needs related to the overarching goals of BizRecycling and waste reduction and recycling best practices, as approved by R&E.
Eligibility Criteria
- Businesses that meet the following criteria are eligible for a Waste Reduction & Innovation grant.
- For-profit or non-profit entities; all public, private and charter K-12 schools in Washington County; all K-12 charter schools with less than 250 students and all K-12 private schools in Ramsey County; private colleges and universities.
- Must have a permanent physical location in Ramsey or Washington County.
- Be in “active/in good standing” status with the Minnesota Secretary of State at the time of application.
- Previous recipients of BizRecycling grants may apply. Applicants must be in compliance with their previous grant contract.
- Ineligible entities include home-based businesses; all public K-12 schools in Ramsey County; public entities; public colleges and universities; tenants in publicly owned spaces; and residential apartment and condo buildings.
Requirements
- Complete a site assessment with an R&E Recycling Expert. § Complete a Waste Reduction & Innovation application.
- Awardees must enter into a contract agreement with R&E for a period of 18 months. The approved application will serve as the work scope for the agreement.
- Agree to host up to 3 site visits with an R&E Recycling Expert. The site visits are to (1) review current on-site operations and equipment, discuss objectives, and approach, and prepare the grant application; (2) if needed, implement the grant; and (3) a final walk through at the end of the 18-month grant period.
- Agree to carry out grant activities for 18 months.
- Provide a 3-sentence testimonial with pictures or video at the end of the grant period and, if asked, allow the R&E to promote the project as an example of a successful waste reduction project.
For more information, visit BizRecycling.
