The Pacific U.S. Territories received a total of $1.9M from President Biden’s Investing in America agenda through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

John Katz with U.S. EPA, Region 9, told KUAM, "This represents a groundbreaking investment in recycling and circular economy that we have not provided to states and territories in many, many, many years. So we're really looking forward to working with all of our partners with not just the territories, but also the local communities to maximize the benefits of these grants to really build that foundation on the ground in the communities and to help them address their solid waste challenges."

It’s meant to expand recycling infrastructure and waste management systems in the Pacific. We spoke with John Katz who manages the Zero Waste section as part of the Land, Chemicals, and Redevelopment Division.

He added, "And it's part of the solid waste infrastructure for recycling grant programs. The purpose of the grants are to keep valuable resources like metal, paper, cardboard, computers, plastics, food, and yard trimmings out of landfills, and to contribute both to materials reuse and also contribute to reducing our carbon footprint. This is really to advance our national recycling agenda to try to improve the recycling rate for the entire country."

The CNMI was awarded just over $600,000 for its efforts. Under their plan, the Office of Planning and Development will purchase and repair recycling equipment and hire additional operating staff. Tinian and Rota will process scrap metal and derelict vehicles. Saipan will also work on sensitive data destruction and electronics recycling.

He said, "When the funds were made available, we had very specific guidance on the kinds of activities that anybody could use it for not just territories but states as well. And that included that had to be focused on recycling. So it's not for land, building up infrastructure for landfilling, or incineration or other means of disposing of waste. So the focus was definitely on recycling."

He added, "There was guidance on what kinds of activities we hoped people would use it for, including everything from doing characterization of waste streams to figure out how much of it is recyclable, doing research on recycling, infrastructure needs, or pathways for recyclable materials, and then all the way into planning and implementation of recycling and composting infrastructure. The funding can also be used for measurement and tracking of recycling so that states and territories can understand where are those resources going and how are they improving the recycling rate or diversion out of landfills."

The significant investment creates an opportunity for communities to manage waste amid the climate crisis meaningfully.