EPA gets $34M to expand recycling access and map the nation's waste systems.
S. 351 — STEWARD Act of 2025 · Filed by Shelley Capito (R-WV) · 2 cosponsors · Introduced Jan 30, 2025 · Passed chamber
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What it does
The STEWARD Act establishes a $30 million pilot grant program to help states, local governments, tribes, and public-private partnerships build recycling infrastructure in underserved communities—particularly those lacking nearby materials recovery facilities. It also directs the EPA to collect and publish comprehensive data on U.S. recycling and composting programs, infrastructure capacity, contamination rates, and end-market sales of recyclable materials, with $4 million authorized for data collection through 2029.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core mechanism is a competitive grant program for recycling infrastructure in underserved areas, paired with mandatory EPA data collection and reporting on national recycling capacity and performance. Both components serve public accountability and environmental access.
What the text implies
- Public-private partnerships are eligible entities; private firms may capture grant value through contracts, though the bill requires EPA to evaluate their financial health and limits federal share to 95%, reducing moral hazard.
- Data collection is voluntary from states and tribes; EPA cannot mandate participation, potentially creating gaps in national inventory and limiting the transparency value of the reporting requirement.
- The bill does not establish enforceable recycling rate targets or penalties for non-performance, so grant-funded infrastructure improvements may not translate to measurable increases in actual recycling rates.
- Prohibition on using grant funds for education programs may limit the effectiveness of infrastructure investments if communities lack awareness of new recycling access points.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill expands recycling access in underserved communities and mandates transparent, public data collection on recycling systems—both direct public goods. The grant program prioritizes communities without nearby facilities and requires 70% of funds to serve underserved areas, ensuring broad geographic benefit rather than concentrated subsidy. Data transparency enables citizens and policymakers to assess system performance.
Who stands to gain
- recycling infrastructure contractors and equipment suppliers
- materials recovery facility operators
- waste management and logistics companies
- consulting firms providing technical assistance to grant applicants
Named in the bill
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), States, Units of local government, Indian Tribes, Public-private partnerships, Materials recovery facilities, Transfer stations, Comptroller General of the U.S., Solid Waste Disposal Act
Where it stands
2 cosponsors: 1 Democrats, 1 Republicans.
- Jan 30, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Jan 30, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works”
- Feb 5, 2025 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Committee on Environment and Public Works. Reported by Senator Capito without amendment.”
- Nov 20, 2025 — Passed the Senate · Congress.gov: “Passed Senate without amendment by Voice Vote. (consideration: CR S8395-8398; text: CR S8395-8398)”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
31 lobbying clients named this bill on 48 disclosure filings across 3 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $53,047,724 in lobbying spend. A filing names 6 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 98% of bills with at least one filing.
Shelley Capito, the sponsor, reported $2,021,591 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle. $16,000 of that came from 3 PACs tied to these lobbying clients.
- Chamber of Commerce of the U.S.A. — $37,710,000 on 2 filings
- Dow Chemical Company Dba Dow — $2,740,000 on 2 filings
- American Chemistry Council — $2,570,000 on 1 filing
- Lyondell Chemical Company — $1,530,000 on 2 filings
- Coca-cola Company — $1,450,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 21, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (21,183 characters) on Jun 8, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 21, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“EPA gets $34M to expand recycling access and map the nation's waste systems.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s351 Report an error
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