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Plastic Free Waters Grant is sponsored by earthday365 and the Green Dining Alliance (funded by Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative (MRCTI) and the EPA). This grant provides local businesses with access to environmentally friendly products to help remove Styrofoam and plastics from their food and drink operations, thereby reducing plastic pollution and the formation of microplastics.
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EPA Formalizes Local-Federal Partnership to Protect Mississippi River Communities from Plastic Pollution | US EPA EPA Formalizes Local-Federal Partnership to Protect Mississippi River Communities from Plastic Pollution WASHINGTON – Yesterday, EPA Deputy Administrator Janet McCabe joined more than 40 mayors from the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative (MRCTI) to affirm the Agency’s commitment to working collaboratively with local communities along the Mississippi River to address pollution and other shared environmental challenges.
During the organization’s 10th annual meeting, EPA and MRCTI announced a landmark Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that formalizes their local-federal partnership to tackle plastic pollution in the Mississippi River through community-driven efforts.
“The EPA is excited to partner with MRCTI to protect communities within the Mississippi River corridor, including those that are vulnerable, underserved, and overburdened by environmental challenges,” said EPA Deputy Administrator Janet McCabe . “We are all upstream of somebody.
This partnership is a first of its kind, spanning multiple regions, to sustainably manage waste and prevent and reduce plastic pollution in the mighty Mississippi River. Investing in communities to make them cleaner, healthier, stronger, equitable, and more economically competitive is one of our most important objectives at EPA.
” The MOU will bring EPA together with state and local governments, communities, businesses, and concerned residents to identify collective actions that prevent plastic pollution and improve the environment and public health. Up to 80 percent of the plastic in oceans originates from land-based sources, and up to 40 percent of the plastic pollution entering the Gulf of Mexico originates from the Mississippi River.
This plastic material breaks down over time into tiny pieces that can be consumed by fish and other wildlife. MRCTI brings researchers, mayors, the federal government, international organizations, non-governmental organizations, and others together to advance the collective understanding of environmental challenges such as plastic pollution, nutrient pollution, disaster resiliency, and climate change.
EPA will support the UN Environment Program in its partnership with MRCTI and key partners’ Mississippi River Plastic Pollution Initiative to study the state of plastic pollution along the Mississippi. This will include expansion from existing and planned pilot cities — in Baton Rouge, La. , St.
Louis, Mo. , St. Paul, Minn.
, Memphis, Tenn. and the Quad Cities, Iowa/Ill. — to additional communities along the Mississippi River.
The agency’s participation will help boost best practices, lessons learned, and methodologies for on-the-ground efforts to reduce plastic pollution that could be replicated in other domestic and international contexts. Since 2012, Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative has been promoting economic and environmental security and stability along the Mississippi River Corridor.
There are 124 Mississippi River main stem cities and towns. These riparian population centers are soundly River-centric. MRCTI gives a common voice to those who depend most upon the River, and by virtue of doing so, spans political and economic interests.
Visit: https://www. mrcti. org/ Learn more about specific plastics data: https://www.
epa. gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/plastics-material-specific-data , and information about EPA’s Trash Free Waters program: https://www. epa.
gov/trash-free-waters . https://www. epa.
gov/smm/memorandum-understanding-between-epa-and-mississippi-river-cities-and-towns-initiative Read other EPA News Releases about Trash and Recycling Contact Us about News Releases to ask a question, provide feedback, or report a problem. Last updated on January 18, 2023
According to the current listing, eligibility includes: Local businesses that complete the Plastic Use Reduction Pledge. Confirm the full requirements in the official notice before applying.
The current listing shows up to $1000. Verify award ceilings, matching requirements, and allowable costs in the official notice.
Plastic Free Waters Grant is funded by earthday365 and the Green Dining Alliance (funded by Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative (MRCTI) and the EPA). Verify program details on the funder's official page before applying.
Start from the official opportunity page linked in this listing — it carries the sponsor's submission instructions.
On June 29, 2026, EPA announced it will waive the $25,000 WIFIA application fee and the credit processing fee — averaging roughly $156,000 per loan — for communities of 25,000 or fewer residents in fiscal years 2026 and 2027. Combined, that removes nearly $200,000 in upfront cost from the single most affordable federal water-infrastructure financing program, which carries roughly $11 billion in available capacity and can cover up to 80% of eligible project costs at Treasury-rate pricing. For small towns, rural utilities, and the nonprofits and districts that serve them, this is a rare instance of the federal government lowering the barrier to a program that has historically been out of reach for exactly the communities that need it most. Here is what changed, who qualifies, and how to move on a letter of interest before the window closes.
Read articleFor FY2026 and FY2027, EPA is waiving the $25,000 WIFIA application fee and the ~$156,000 credit-processing fee for water systems serving 25,000 or fewer people — a near-$200,000 discount on access to an $11 billion pool of low-cost federal financing. The waiver removes the single barrier that kept small and rural utilities out of WIFIA for a decade. Here is how WIFIA actually works, who qualifies, why the letter of interest is the real gate, and how a town of 8,000 should think about a program built for billion-dollar projects.
Read articleFor FY2026 and FY2027, EPA is waiving the WIFIA application and credit-processing fees for communities of 25,000 or fewer — saving nearly $200,000 per loan — against roughly $11 billion in flexible financing that covers up to 80 percent of project costs. Here is why WIFIA has been underused by small systems, how the loan actually works, and how a rural utility should build a WIFIA strategy in 2026.
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