[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1034 Introduced in House (IH)]
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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.
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 ``Zero Waste Development and Expansion
Act of 2017''.
SEC. 2. GRANT PROGRAM.
The Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (in this
Act referred to as the ``Administrator'') shall award grants to local
governments or consortia of local governments, which may be acting in
coordination with one or more nongovernmental entities. The grants
shall be used to develop solid waste prevention, reuse, and recycling
tactics and operations, which may include--
(1) development or deployment of technologies or practices
to increase rates of waste prevention, reuse, recycling, or
composting;
(2) capital investment in infrastructure to start or expand
waste prevention, reuse, recycling, composting, or product
reuse programs;
(3) partnerships with local businesses interested in
incorporating new technologies or processes to reduce or
prevent waste in production or packaging; or
(4) community outreach and public education programming,
including programming to--
(A) increase community knowledge of effective waste
prevention, reuse, recycling, or composting; and
(B) increase behavior that will reduce overall
household waste generation.
SEC. 3. GRANT REVIEW.
(a) Grant Awardees.--Grants shall be awarded under this Act to
applicants that collectively represent a range of existing waste
prevention, reuse, recycling, and composting rates. In order to be
considered for this award, applicants must--
(1) set specific waste prevention, reuse, recycling,
composting, or public education goals that will bring
communities closer to zero waste;
(2) have a clearly established plan to use grant funds for
one or more of the purposes described in section 2; and
(3) meet other criteria as determined by the Administrator.
(b) Additional Factors.--Additional weight may be given to the
applications of local governments or consortia that--
(1) have statutorily committed to zero waste principles;
(2) demonstrate job creation;
(3) have partnerships with domestic manufacturers who will
use locally recycled materials to spur the growth of domestic
manufacturing businesses and the creation of domestic
manufacturing jobs;
(4) address the disproportionate environmental, health, and
economic burden of waste disposal that is borne by communities
of color and low income;
(5) propose to use funds for waste prevention, reuse, or
recycling programs in schools;
(6) employ adaptive management practices to identify and
address unintended consequences as they arise, including
potential contamination of land, water, air, or food;
(7) have a demonstrated need for additional investment in
infrastructure and programs to achieve waste prevention, reuse,
or recycling;
(8) will drive technologies for product reuse, recycling,
composting, or waste prevention;
(9) demonstrate ways in which the grant will encourage
further investment in waste prevention, reuse, recycling, or
composting projects; or
(10) incorporate multistakeholder involvement, including
nonprofit, commercial, and public sector partners.
SEC. 4. REPORTING.
Grant awardees shall report to the Administrator the results of
their project and relevant data requested by the Administrator to track
the grant program's impact.
SEC. 5. ANNUAL CONFERENCE.
The Administrator shall convene or co-convene an annual conference
for current, past, and potential grantees, and other stakeholders, to
learn from each other's experiences in moving toward a zero waste goal.
SEC. 6. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Recycling.--The term ``recycling'' means processing
material that has reached the end of its current use into
material utilized in the production of new products. The term
does not include incineration.
(2) Reuse.--The term ``reuse'' means extending the life of
a product, packaging, or resources by either using it more than
once for the same or a new function with little to no
processing, or repairing it so it can be used longer, sharing
or renting it, or selling or donating it to another party. The
term does not include incineration.
(3) Waste prevention.--The term ``waste prevention''
includes--
(A) measures or techniques that reduce the amount
of wastes generated during industrial production
processes; and
(B) reuse, recycling, and other efforts to reduce
the amount of waste going into the waste stream.
(4) Zero waste.--The term ``zero waste'' is a goal that is
ethical, economical, efficient, and visionary, to guide people
in changing their lifestyles and practices to emulate
sustainable natural cycles, where all discarded materials are
designed to become resources for others to use. Zero waste
means designing and managing products and processes to
systematically avoid and eliminate the volume and toxicity of
waste and materials, conserve and recover all resources, and
not burn or bury them. Implementing zero waste will eliminate
all discharges to land, water, or air that are a threat to
planetary, human, animal, or plant health.
SEC. 7. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
There are authorized to be appropriated to the Administrator
$100,000,000 for the period encompassing fiscal years 2018 through 2023
for carrying out this Act.
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