U.S. EPA Sustainable Materials Management Program Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2017 - 2022

Published on January 15, 2020

This Strategic Plan for the Environmental Protection Agency's Sustainable Materials Management (SMM) Program outlines the three strategic priorities chosen as the focus of the Program for Fiscal Years 2017 to 2022, which present significant opportunities for environmental, economic and social results. EPA's SMM Program Strategic Plan represents the collective thinking of EPA staff and management across the country, and includes stakeholder input from states, industry and nongovernmental organizations. Sustainable materials management (SMM) is a systemic approach to using and reusing materials more productively over their entire life cycles. By examining how materials are used throughout their life cycle, an SMM approach seeks to use materials in the most productive way with an emphasis on using less, and reduce toxic chemicals and environmental impacts throughout the material life cycle.

The strategic priority areas of this Strategic Plan include: 1) The Built Environment - conserve materials and develop community resiliency to climate change through improvements to construction, maintenance, and end-of-life management of our nation's roads, buildings, and infrastructure; 2) Sustainable Food Management - focus on reducing food loss and waste; and 3) Sustainable Packaging - increase the quantity and quality of materials recovered from municipal solid waste and develop critically important collection and processing infrastructure. Work under each of these areas will support the four primary SMM program objectives to: 1. Decrease the disposal rate, which includes source reduction, reuse, recycling and prevention; 2. Reduce the environmental impacts of materials across their life cycle; 3. Increase socio-economic benefits; and 4. Increase the capacity of state and local governments, communities and key stakeholders to adopt and implement SMM policies, practices and incentives. In addition to these strategic priorities, EPA will continue work in other SMM emphasis areas, including sustainable electronics management, life cycle assessment, international SMM efforts, and overarching measurement and analysis.