Biden EPA put $40B price tag on recycling goals

By Ellie Borst | 01/23/2025 01:29 PM EST

The agency’s report also urged standardized federal reporting requirements.

Workers sort colored plastics.

Workers sort colored plastics at the Montgomery County Recycling Center in Rockville, Maryland. Tim Sloan/AFP via Getty Images

EPA approximated it needs $40 billion to meet its goal for a 50 percent recycling rate by 2030, according to a recently published agency report.

Investments, which the agency projected would fall somewhere between $36 billion and $43 billion, would boost the number of curbside recycling projects and expand recycling infrastructure necessary to bring the nation’s recycling rate from 32 to 61 percent, according to the report.

But without standardized federal reporting requirements, that rate would still be based on incomplete data.

Advertisement

Only about half of U.S. states and territories measure an overall recycling rate, yielding a mean rate of 32 percent, according to a separate EPA report assessing data gaps.

GET FULL ACCESS