FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 6, 2025
Berkeley, CA — The Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) is proud to announce the 13 grassroots partners advancing transformative zero waste solutions through the U.S. Methane Reduction and Environmental Justice Regrant Program.
With an investment from the Global Methane Hub, GAIA mobilized $675,000 to its member organizations across the U.S. that are implementing innovative, community-driven solutions including composting, food waste prevention and diversion, landfill pollution reduction and monitoring, and climate and environmental justice leadership. These grants support grassroots organizations at the forefront of advancing zero waste solutions that safeguard public health and the environment across local, regional, and state levels.
At a time when the waste sector remains the third largest source of methane emissions, a potent greenhouse gas (GHG) that traps more than 82 times as much heat as carbon dioxide (CO2) over a 20-year timespan, grassroots leadership has never been more critical. Even modest ambition to separately collect and treat organics can reduce landfill methane emissions by 62 percent.
“GAIA’s U.S. Methane Reduction and Environmental Justice Regrant Program is an opportunity to highlight and support the various grassroots efforts taking shape across the country to address and reduce methane emissions from the waste sector,” said Marcel R. Howard, US & Canada Regional Zero Waste Program Manager at GAIA. “This initiative is aimed at ensuring environmental and climate justice principles are prioritized and integrated within methane emissions reduction strategies. By embracing zero waste strategies, the waste sector could reduce methane emissions by 95% through a combined approach that prevents food waste, recovers edible surplus food, separately collects and processes organic waste, and reduces emissions at disposal sites.”
The 2025 GAIA Methane Reduction and Environmental Justice Grant Recipients and Cohort include:
- Minnesota Environmental Justice Table
- CURE (Minnesota)
- Californians Against Waste Foundation
- Valley Improvement Projects (California)
- JOIN for Clean Air (Louisiana)
- Environmental Integrity Project (Louisiana)
- Slingshot (New England)
- GreenLatinos (Colorado)
- Brookhaven Landfill Action and Remediation Group (New York)
- South Baltimore Community Land Trust (Maryland)
- Clean Water Fund (Maryland)
- Zero Waste Detroit (Michigan)
- Pocasset Pokanoket Land Trust (Rhode Island)
The U.S. Methane Reduction and Environmental Justice Regrant Program strengthens grassroots leadership and accelerates the transition to just and sustainable waste systems. By equipping frontline communities with the resources they need to drive change, GAIA aims to reduce methane emissions, advocate for zero waste policies, and support environmental justice efforts nationwide.
“GAIA’s regrant program is rooted in a powerful truth: the solutions we need are already thriving in our communities,” said Denaya Shorter, Senior Director of the US & Canada Region at GAIA. “For generations, frontline communities have been leading with courage, innovation, and justice—advancing zero waste solutions that protect our planet and our people. We are honored to support their vision for a future where no community is sacrificed, and where zero waste paves the way toward true environmental justice.”
For more details on the U.S. Methane Reduction and Environmental Justice Regrant Program and its grantees, visit no-burn.org/us-methane-ej-regrant-program.
U.S. Methane Reduction and Environmental Justice Cohort Quotes:
“We’re grateful for the opportunity to partner with other members of the GAIA network to tackle methane emissions at the source. Landfills are a major driver of climate change, and we need real solutions now. Stronger regulations can cut methane quickly, while composting keeps food scraps and yard trimmings out of landfills entirely—turning this ‘waste’ into a resource that offers a climate solution instead of posing a climate threat,” said Nick Lapis, Director of Advocacy, Californians Against Waste Foundation (CAWF).
“The Brookhaven Landfill is a 270-foot-high monster that looms over our community. A monster that the local government fails to address. After 50 years of tireless advocacy, countless illnesses, and even death in our community, we know that the local government refuses to keep us safe. This grant will help keep us on the road to march to zero waste and win the struggle for the achievement of environmental justice,” said Monique Fitzgerald, Co-Founder, Brookhaven Landfill Action & Remediation Group (BLARG).
“The generous grant support from GAIA affirms the importance of Indigenous-led solutions to environmental justice and food sovereignty. It will allow us to expand composting infrastructure and provide outreach and education for Indigenous families in Rhode Island, making sustainable waste reduction accessible and culturally grounded. Through this project, we’ll turn food scraps into fertile soil that feeds our communities and our futures,” said Michelle Nikfarjam, Agroecology Support Specialist, Pocasset Pokanoket Land Trust.
“We are very excited to be accepted into GAIA’s U.S. Methane Reduction & Environmental Justice Regrant Program. This grant helps make possible our progress, connecting us to the resources we need and helping us expand the work we do with our partners in the fight for clean air here in Louisiana,” said Justin Vittitow, Director, JOIN for Clean Air.
“Slingshot is grateful for GAIA’s support of our work alongside most-impacted communities to take aim at polluters and build local leadership. This funding will enable us to support community groups across the northeast in decreasing pollution from existing landfills, halting the build-out of greenwashed energy solutions, and calling for an overhaul of our broken waste system. We are excited to join this cohort in our shared fight for a just and thriving world,” said Hayley Jones, VT and NH State Director, Slingshot.
“The Environmental Integrity Project is thrilled to join GAIA’s landfill methane and environmental justice cohort. GAIA’s effective coalition-building has helped communities affected by waste disposal throughout the country. We look forward to building knowledge and relationships as we work together to tackle the important and under-resourced issue of landfill pollution,” said Leah Kelly, Senior Attorney, Environmental Integrity Project (EIP).
“This grant will enable Zero Waste Detroit to continue building and strengthening capacity to reach more community stakeholders. This grant facilitates the expansion of our organizational ability to reach more residents while expanding our educational programming related to food waste and reducing methane and carbon dioxide emissions. Educating our communities about waste reduction and diversion is a necessary step to reducing CO2 and Methane CH4 emissions, in the fight to mitigate climate change,” said Deborah Stewart Anderson, M.Ed., Executive Director, Zero Waste Detroit.
“The conversation about how to sustainably address the waste crisis is often focused on our cities and dense population centers, leaving rural communities as something of an afterthought. This is in spite of the fact that a lot of our waste, whether it’s going to a landfill or a garbage burner, is often headed to a rural locale. As rural community advocates, we at CURE are excited to partner with our friends at the Minnesota EJ Table to address this gap and bring rural and urban zero waste champions together to talk about both the commonalities and differences our communities face when it comes to waste and move towards finding holistic solutions,” said Maggie Schuppert, Director of Strategic Initiatives, CURE.
Press contact:
María Guillén, Communications Coordinator, US & Canada
mariaguillen@no-burn.org
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GAIA is a worldwide alliance of more than 1,000 grassroots groups, non-governmental organizations, and individuals in over 90 countries. With our work, we aim to catalyze a global shift towards environmental justice by strengthening grassroots social movements that advance solutions to waste and pollution. We envision a just, zero waste world built on respect for ecological limits and community rights, where people are free from the burden of toxic pollution, and resources are sustainably conserved, not burned or dumped.