The Trump administration’s proposed budget would add new grant programs, but significantly shrink sustainable materials management funding.
Cole Rosengren reports for WasteDive
The U.S. EPA’s recently proposed FY21 budget calls for a nearly 53% reduction in funding dedicated to the agency’s waste minimization and recycling work, despite ongoing public promises to help address national recycling challenges.
As outlined, the annual budget for this area under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) would decline by nearly $9 million and be offset by $4.25 million in new initiatives. Staffing levels would shrink from 43.4 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff to 5 FTE. The EPA says its proposal “refocuses the Program from efforts in Sustainable Materials Management to the priority areas of recycling and food waste and loss.”
The Trump administration has sought to drastically reduce the EPA’s budget before, but is annually rebuffed by Congress. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi already indicated the administration’s new broader budget proposal will face a similar reaction this year.
The FY21 proposal also includes a large reduction to related RCRA waste management work, but the requested recycling cuts are in some ways more notable when it comes to agency messaging. For the past three budget years (FY18, FY19 and FY20), the EPA has proposed a complete elimination of the RCRA waste minimization and recycling program.
Traditionally, EPA has justified the cuts by arguing state and local governments could continue similar work, even though many other environmental agencies face their own funding constraints. This year the agency altered that approach, indicating EPA wants to more generally shift resources away from sustainable materials management (SMM) projects.
SMM, a lifecycle thinking concept elevated within the EPA’s Office of Land and Emergency Management (OLEM) during the Obama administration, is often raised by both appointees and career staff as a foundational element of their work. SMM was most recently cited as a priority to Waste Dive last fall by EPA officials and mentioned by OLEM Assistant Administrator Peter Wright in a House subcommittee hearing just last week.
Asked to explain this implied policy shift, an EPA spokesperson told Waste Dive the agency’s position has not changed. They pointed to upcoming events around SMM and ongoing planning for 2020 America Recycles Week activities. “The Administration’s 2021 budget request marks a significant commitment to this priority area by requesting more funding than last year’s request,” the spokesperson said via email.
While the agency’s $4.25 million request for new initiatives is notable – especially when compared to last year’s request for fully eliminating the program with no offset funding – it is still a significant reduction when balanced out by the nearly $9 million in proposed cuts.
