EPA Announces $196,430 in Funding for St. Louis Area Sustainable Materials Management Project

The following press release was published by the US EPA on Oct. 4. It is reproduced in full below.

LENEXA, KAN. (OCT. 4, 2021) - Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that the Product Stewardship Institute Inc. (PSI) has been selected for $196,430 in Sustainable Materials Management funding to establish infrastructure to reduce the St. Louis restaurant industry’s reliance on single-use plastic.

PSI will partner with St. Louis-based earthday365 to bring together stakeholders to focus on developing source reduction plans and expanding a reusable food container program in the city.

“The Product Stewardship Institute’s multi-stakeholder project to decrease plastic waste in food service will serve as a model for other communities to see the environmental, social and economic benefits of reducing plastic in dining,” said Acting EPA Region 7 Administrator Edward H. Chu. “I hope their project will inspire others to adopt Sustainable Materials Management principles.”

“We’re thrilled to be launching this project in partnership with earthday365 and the Missouri Product Stewardship Council to help restaurants in St. Louis and across the state reduce waste,” said Sydney Harris, policy and programs manager, Product Stewardship Institute (PSI). “As PSI has found through similar projects we’ve conducted, reducing packaging and plastic waste before it reaches consumers is critical to protecting rivers and oceans and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions — and it can also save small businesses thousands of dollars. It’s a win-win for people and the planet.”

Sustainable Materials Management (SMM) is a systemic approach to using materials more productively over their life cycles. SMM looks at a product's life cycle to find new opportunities to reduce environmental impacts, conserve resources, and reduce costs. EPA’s SMM program supports efforts and projects to help build community health by reducing the use, release and exposure to toxic chemicals; using life-cycle approaches to reduce the health and environmental impacts of materials use; and employing upstream solutions that reduce the need and cost of environmental cleanup and pollution management.

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Source: US EPA