Investment and Innovation grants are intended to build lasting private-sector and nonprofit-sector capacity to reduce waste through prevention, reuse, repair, recycling and composting. At the same time, the grants support efforts to advance racial equity in the garbage and recycling system, including expanding services and employment opportunities for underserved communities and reducing harms from garbage and recycling operations. The Investment and Innovation program advances progress toward multiple goals of the 2030 Regional Waste Plan and Metro’s strategic plan to advance racial equity, diversity and inclusion.
Capital grants are awarded to private businesses, universities, and nonprofit organizations for infrastructure upgrades and equipment. Businesses and universities are required to provide a match of at least 100 percent of the grant amount.
Five capital projects received funding from Metro’s Investment and Innovation program in 2023, for a total Metro investment of $1,063,253, which will leverage an additional $759,287 in matching funds provided by the three business grant recipients.
The 2023 Investment and Innovation capital grant recipients are:
Birch Community Services
Preserving rescued food
Grant amount: $103,489
Match amount: $0 (not required for nonprofit organizations)
Total investment: $103,489
Birch Community Services will replace a failing 10-door freezer at its Gresham facility to keep donated and rescued food cold. The freezer is essential infrastructure for Birch’s program that rescues more than 11 million pounds of food annually from over 300 local food growers, processors, distributors and retailers. This nutritious food that would otherwise be wasted is redistributed to more than 900 families a year through Birch’s Sustainable Families Program. An additional 25,000 people have access to nutritious food through Birch’s work to supply food to over 60 community-based agencies.
Bold Reuse
Upgrading reusable food packaging infrastructure in greater Portland
Grant amount: $42,157
Match amount: $42,157
Total investment: $84,314
Bold Reuse will upgrade its washing and drying systems to support increased demand for its reusable food packaging products and services. The grant will fund conveyor systems and drying equipment apparatuses and will incorporate artificial intelligence to enhance quality control and manage inventory. This added capacity will support Bold Reuse’s efforts to bring reusable food service ware to large vendors, including partnerships in development with Portland Community College, Portland Public Schools District (focusing on bringing reusables to Title I schools), the Moda Center and McMenamins. In addition to creating efficiencies, the new dishwashing and drying system will improve working conditions for Bold Reuse frontline staff.
City of Roses Disposal & Recycling
Adding organic waste recovery to create animal feed
Grant amount: $217,130
Match amount: $217,130
Total investment: $434,260
City of Roses Disposal and Recycling (COR) will retrofit an existing building to add dry organics recovery processes. The project will enable COR to accept, remove packaging, and prepare previously landfill-bound items including baking goods and mixes, nuts, dehydrated fruits and vegetables and other dry organics to become animal feed. Diversion for animal feed is third most beneficial way to manage food waste according to the EPA Food Recovery Hierarchy. The organics waste stream will come from food products suppliers and manufacturers, distribution centers, and grocery stores and consist of scraps, trimmings or extras from processing that were never meant to be sold to consumers. An estimated 27,300 tons of organics will be recovered through this new process, and four full-time living wage jobs will be created to operate the new system.
Denton Plastics
Plastic recycling facility expansion
Grant amount: $500,000
Match amount: $500,000
Total investment: $1,000,000
Denton Plastics will construct a new three-sided building at their facility in Gresham to increase the amount of rigid polyethylene (plastic recycling symbols #2 & #4) and polypropylene (plastic recycling symbol #5) plastics that can be processed at the facility. The building will prevent stormwater pollution from the large volumes of plastic material and will protect the material from degrading while it is stored for processing. Denton is the largest processor of recycled plastics in Oregon. Processing recycled plastic locally has significant environmental and human health benefits when compared to sending materials to distant and potentially unknown end markets.
Outgrowing Hunger
Upcycling rescued food
Grant amount: $200,477
Match amount: $0 (not required for nonprofit organizations)
Total investment: $200,477
Outgrowing Hunger serves a racially and ethnically diverse group of organizations, growers, producers and community members in East Multnomah County. This network is strengthening the food ecosystem and preventing waste so that food is used for its highest nutritional and economic potential. Funds will be used to purchase equipment for producer entrepreneurs to transform food that would otherwise be wasted into valuable products. Sources of food that will be rescued for upcycling include overgrown and unsold crops, farmers market “leftovers,” excess grain production by mills, imperfect foods from distributors, and leftover food from restaurants. The project partners will transform these unsellable but nutritious foods into soups, salads and preserved products. They will sell these products at the proposed grocery store at Rockwood Market Hall to generate revenue, as well as provide the products to BIPOC youth summer camps and transitional housing hotels, among other outlets.