Manchester Gets Inaugural Materials Management Infrastructure Grant

MANCHESTER, CT — The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Thursday announced the awards for the inaugural Materials Management Infrastructure Grant Program and Manchester is involved.

A total of $15 million dollars in grant funds—to date the state's largest investment in local and regional waste management infrastructure — has been been made available through a competitive application process to Connecticut municipalities, councils of government, and regional waste authorities to support the development of waste management infrastructure in direct response to the solid waste disposal challenges that are impacting these entities.

Manchester is getting $4.775 million.

“Manchester is very happy to have been selected for the DEEP MMI grant. Our proposed initiatives will increase organics from the waste stream, facilitate plastic film recycling, and provide much needed food waste collection and processing facilities for our region. We look forward to implementing our proposed waste diversion and recycling initiatives to the benefit of our community and the surrounding region,” Manchester Town Manager Steve Stephanou said.

DEEP officials said "Connecticut is facing a waste crisis," because traditional options for disposing of municipal solid waste are diminishing or becoming more expensive. With fewer, and rapidly aging, disposal options located within the state, residents and municipal leaders can expect to see increasing disposal costs over time as more waste is shipped out of state, they said.

The MMI grant program is designed to help municipalities and regional entities respond to the situation by providing grant funds to develop small- to medium-scale waste management infrastructure.

"This funding provided by Governor (Ned) Lamont and the Connecticut General Assembly will invest in infrastructure to reduce municipal solid waste and help divert valuable recyclable and compostable material from disposal. By investing in waste separation and sorting infrastructure; composting and anaerobic digestion facilities; food scraps/food waste collection and processing equipment; infrastructure for managing hard-to-recycle materials such as plastic film and glass; and establishing a regional materials reuse exchange shop," DEEP officials said.

Competition for the MMI Grant funds was very strong, with 20 applications submitted requesting approximately $30 million in funding.