Oregon DEQ offers $2M in grants to reduce toxic building materials

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality is offering up to $2 million in grants for small businesses, nonprofits, public schools and governments to reduce harmful substances in building materials.

The “Reduce, Reuse, Reimagine Grants” support statewide efforts to reduce the environmental and human health impacts of materials at all stages of their life cycle.

They’re funded by a fee on landfill tipping charges.

Past grants have helped Salem’s Garten Services modernize its E-cycle Refurb Lab, increasing its capacity to process and refurbish donated electronics into sellable goods.

They’ve helped Corvallis and Benton County partner to reduce waste at community events by providing low- or no-cost alternatives to single-use water bottles and water bottle filling stations that can be checked out for events.

And they’ve helped McMinnville create a tool lending library.

This year’s grants are focused on projects that reduce human exposure to toxic substances in building materials, such as carpets, paint, furniture and insulation.

Those could include things like creating guides to help homeowners choose safer materials; developing school lessons about safer chemistry in building materials, or researching how to remove or replace a specific toxic chemical.

The grant program has been around since 1991. It was aimed mainly at governments before it was paused in 2008 during the recession. It was paused again in 2020, partly because of the COVID-19 pandemic and partly to refocus efforts to reach more diverse projects and areas of the state, and was relaunched on a biennial cycle in 2024.

DEQ will offer four information sessions in March for those interested in applying for the 2026 grant cycle, covering funding areas, project eligibility, application guidance and timelines. All sessions will be held virtually through Zoom (registration required) and will be recorded and posted to the DEQ website.

The sessions will be held:

“If people aren’t sure if their project ideas are eligible or competitive we’d love to have them attend and chat with them about that,” grants coordinator Haley Miller said. “We really want to see this fund projects across the state.”

DEQ also will host virtual office hours April 20-24, just before the April 30 deadline for a pre-application. The most competitive of those projects will be invited to submit a full application.

For more information, or to register for the information sessions, visit the grant website at https://www.oregon.gov/deq/mm/pages/grants.aspx

Tracy Loew covers the environment at the Statesman Journal. Send comments, questions and tips: [email protected] or 503-399-6779. Follow her on X at @Tracy_Loew

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