Why should I care about recycling?
Recycling in the U.S. is a $236-billion-a-year industry. Companies rely on recycling programs to provide the raw materials they need to make new products. The average American discards seven and one-half pounds of garbage every day. Most of this garbage goes into landfills, where it's compacted and buried. Recycling requires far less energy, uses fewer natural resources, and keeps waste from piling up in landfills. Recycling offers significant energy savings over manufacturing with virgin materials (for example, manufacturing with recycled aluminum cans uses 95 percent less energy). Recycling and buying recycled products creates demand for more recycled products, decreasing waste and helping our economy.
Recycling, Composting, and Household Hazardous Waste Grants
The Division of Waste Management offers three competitive grant programs through the Kentucky Pride Fund that local government entities can use to develop integrated recycling/composting infrastructure and promote the proper disposal of hazardous household chemicals. Each grantee is required to submit an application for review.
Who can apply? Any county, waste management district, city, urban-county government, or other political subdivision of the state or any combination of the above, including school districts, shall be eligible to apply.
Gov. Beshear Announces $6 Million To Support Recycling and Improve Management of Hazardous Waste
FRANKFORT, Ky May 14,
2026
Gov. Andy Beshear announced $6 million in grants for projects aimed at reducing solid waste in landfills and improving the management of hazardous household waste. The funding, which comes from state dollars supported through the Kentucky Pride Fund, will be provided to municipalities, universities and fiscal courts for 68 projects across the commonwealth.
Important resources for these grant programs can be found below. For more information, contact Ty Collins at williamt.collins@ky.gov or by phone at (502) 871-2981.
Recycling
Household Hazardous Waste
Archived Resources
Planning Guides
Directories and Additional Resources