Grants / Department of Agriculture / Rural Utilities Service

SWMFY26: Solid Waste Management Grant Program

Closed Closed December 31, 2025 Opportunity SWMFY26 ☆ Save

This grant is closed. A newer notice from the same program is open now: Solid Waste Management Grant Program (SWMFY27). Status: Closes December 31, 2026 (54 days left). It is in our archive of Rural Utilities Service notices from 2025.

• Award ceiling$1.0 million
• Total funding$4.0 million
• Expected awards40
• Cost sharingNot required
• Funding typeGrant

Key dates

Who can apply

This opportunity was open to the applicants described in the notice.

• Others (see text field entitled "Additional Information on Eligibility" for clarification)

An organization is eligible to receive a SWM grant if it: a) is a private, non-profit organization that has tax-exempt status from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS). A nonprofit organization is defined as any corporation, trust, association, cooperative, or other organization that:(i) Is operated primarily for scientific, education, service, charitable, or similar purposes in the public interest.(ii) Is not organized primarily for profit.(iii) Uses its net proceeds to maintain, improve, and/or expand its operations.(2) Public bodies.(3) Federally acknowledged or State-recognized Native American tribe or group.(4) Academic institutions.(b) Entities must be legally established and located within a state as defined in § 1775.2.(c) Organizations must be incorporated by December 31 of the year the application period occurs to be eligible for funds.(d) Private businesses, Federal agencies, and individuals are ineligible for these grants.(e) 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:(1) Have the necessary resources to provide technical assistance and/or training to associations in rural areas through its staff, or(2) 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(3)Click to open paragraph tools Contract with a nonaffiliated organization for not more than 49 percent of the grant to provide the proposed assistance.

Is this a realistic fit?

• Past Solid Waste Management Grants awards averaged $186,451; this notice allows up to $1.0 million per award.
• Most of the program's money (57% over five years) went to nonprofits.
• No cost sharing or match is required.

What the grant funds

Funds may be used to: (a) Provide technical assistance and/or training to reduce the solid waste stream through reduction, recycling, and reuse. (b) Provide training to enhance operator skills in maintaining and operating active landfills. (c) 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. (d) Evaluate current landfill conditions to determine the threats to water resources. (e) Pay the expenses associated with providing the technical assistance and/or training authorized in paragraphs (a) through (d) of this section. Grant funds may not be used to: (a) Duplicate current services or replace or substitute support normally provided by other means, such as those performed by an association's consultant in developing a project, including feasibility, design, and cost estimates. (b) Fund political or lobbying activities. (c) Purchase real estate or vehicles, improve or renovate office space, or repair and maintain privately owned property. (d) Pay the costs for construction, improvement, rehabilitation, modification, or operation and maintenance of water, wastewater, and solid waste disposal facilities. (e) Construct or furnish a building. (f) Intervene in the Federal regulatory or adjudicatory proceedings. (g) Sue the Federal Government or any other government entities. (h) Pay for any other costs that are not allowable under 2 CFR part 200, as adopted by USDA through 2 CFR part 400. (i) Make contributions or donations to others. (j) Fund projects that duplicate technical assistance given to implement action plans under the National Forest-Dependent Rural Communities Economic Diversification Act of 1990 (7 U.S.C. 6613). Applicants cannot receive both grants made under this part and grants that the Forest Service makes to implement the action plans for five continuous years from the date of grant approval by the Forest Service. (1) The Forest Service helps rural communities that are dependent upon national forest resources diversify existing industries and economies. It establishes rural forestry and economic diversification action teams that prepare technical assistance plans for these rural communities to expand their local economies and reduce their dependence on national forest resources.

Category: Community Development.

Applying now

This notice no longer takes applications. Apply under the newer notice, SWMFY27, which is open now.

The notice on Grants.gov keeps its full text and attachments, which is useful for planning a resubmission.