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EPA Celebrates Earth Day
Today, on Earth Day, EPA celebrates America's beautiful environment and those that help us protect it every day! Thanks to everyone who works tirelessly beside us to ensure clean air, land, and water for everyone in America!
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One way to further help our planet is by safely handling and disposing of batteries. Batteries can help strengthen America’s energy grid, keep America connected, and power our lives. However, batteries can contain metals such as mercury, lead, cadmium, nickel and silver, which can pose a threat to human health or the environment when improperly managed at the end of their service life. Learn about the different types of batteries and what to do with them when you no longer need them on our website.
Keep an eye out for lithium and lithium-ion (li-ion) batteries in your electronics, toys, e-cigarettes, power tools, appliances, and more. These batteries can cause fires, so they and devices containing them should not go in your household garbage or recycling bin. To prevent fires, tape the terminals of each of the batteries or place them in separate plastic bags. Learn more and find a location to recycle these batteries on our website.
By recycling batteries, you’ll be keeping critical minerals out of our landfills and helping put them back into the essential products we use and rely on every day.
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EPA to Host Webinars on Large-Format Battery Labeling and Collection for Recycling
EPA is hosting two virtual working sessions to improve battery labeling and develop best practices for the collection of rechargeable large format batteries over 25 pounds or more than 2,000 watt-hours. This includes batteries often used in electric, hybrid, and internal combustion engine vehicles; other motorized equipment; and stationary energy storage systems.
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April 24, 2025: Current Standards and Practices for Large Format Batteries. Register today.
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June 17, 2025: Expanding End of Life Management for Large Format Batteries–Recycling and Refurbishing Webinar. Register today.
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EPA Releases New Report: "Estimating the Cost of Food Waste to American Consumers"
On April 4, 2025, EPA announced the release of a new report, “Estimating the Cost of Food Waste to American Consumers.” This report estimates the cost savings available to Americans by reducing food waste. EPA’s research shows that, on average, a family of four spends almost $3,000 per year on food that never gets eaten.
Wasting food wastes:
- The labor and other resources spent to produce, package, transport, and sell uneaten food.
- The nutrients in the uneaten food.
- The money households spent on food they did not consume.
That money, about $56 per week for a family of four, could be spent on many other things — a family trip to the movies, a gym membership, or a tank of gas, to name a few examples. For more information, check out the new report, appendices, and graphic.
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New Report on U.S. West Coast Food Retailers' Reduction in Unsold Food Rates
A new report from the Pacific Coast Food Waste Commitment and the U.S. Food Waste Pact (launched by nonprofit partners ReFED and the World Wildlife Fund in December 2023) finds that unsold food rates have decreased by 30% since 2019 among food retailers on the West Coast. In addition to the fifth year of regional retail data from the PCFWC, the U.S. Food Waste Pact is publishing the first year of both national retail and foodservice data. Read the report and the accompanying data report, as well as the full press release.
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The Institute for Local Self-Reliance Releases New Composting Guidance
Together with Compost Power, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance recently published a rubric to assess how rodent-resistant a composting site is. The rubric is derived from management practices implemented at organization Compost Power’s nine composting sites in New York City. These best practices align with the New York Public Housing Authority’s integrated pest management approach for eliminating the root causes of pests. Download the rubric and learn how to use it. The rubric is also available in Spanish.
 Additionally, ILSR released a home composting guide available in English and Spanish. ILSR’s Composting 101 Training Guide covers the fundamentals of community composting and prepares participants to establish and manage composting projects that both engage and serve their communities. Download the guide.
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Celebrate International Compost Awareness Week from May 4-10!
Composting is nature’s way of recycling. It’s one of the most powerful actions we can take to reduce trash in landfills and create healthy soil. Let's celebrate International Compost Awareness Week from May 4-10!
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Mention of or referral to commercial products or services, and/or links to non-EPA sites does not imply official EPA endorsement of or responsibility for the opinions, ideas, data, or products presented at those locations, or guarantee the validity of the information provided. Mention of commercial products/services on non-EPA websites is provided solely as a pointer to information on topics related to environmental protection that may be useful to EPA staff and the public. |
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By subscribing to the newsletter, you will receive periodic announcements about resources, events, webinars, funding opportunities, and more from EPA and our partners. Topics include circular economy, reduce/reuse/recycle, food loss and waste, electronics, plastics, municipal solid waste, and the built environment.
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