Rapid City is the recipient of a $4,977,265 Solid Waste Infrastructure for Recycling (SWIFR) grant, according to a recent announcement from the Environmental Protection Agency.
The city plans to use the nearly $5 million in funding to expand its commercial recycling services, update equipment, and enhance remote drop-off facilities. The upgrades are expected to double recycling rates and improve the quality of materials collected.
Daniel Ainslie is the Finance Director for Rapid City. He says obtaining the grant was a joint effort between the city's Public Works Department and Grants Division.
"It was really meant to try to secure some additional funding so that we can be more efficient in our recycling and diversion programs that we're offering," said Ainslie. The grant does provide funding for some enhancements to remote drop-off facilities, where people can drop off recycled materials as well as yard waste and other things like that. And then also some additional equipment that would be available at our Material Recovery Facility. Then additional labor costs so that we can try to increase the total amount of recycled or diverted materials that we're processing right now."
Rapid City is a recycling epicenter in the region, providing recycling for communities as far as Wyoming and western Nebraska. In addition to equipment and facility upgrades, the city plans to use the SWIFR grant to expand its recycling services to commercial clients like larger apartment complexes and some businesses. Currently, Ainslie says recycling pick-up is only available to residential dwellings within city limits that are four units or less.
The grant announcement comes shortly after Rapid City Council approved residential waste service rate increases of $3.45 a month beginning in January 2026, along with other changes to recycling and landfill services.
Ainslie says recycling is the largest single cost driver for the city's waste services, resulting in a net loss of three to four million annually. He says the SWIFR grant is an opportunity for officials to look at ways to make the process more cost-efficient.
"It really is an opportune time for us to try to reimagine the current processes that we're doing for recycling and diversion and see if there are more efficient ways that we're able to do it," said Ainslie. "So, this grant really does provide us some initial capital to help pay for those changes and those modifications. And that's something that our Public Works Department and their operations teams really will be diving into significantly over the next couple of months."
Although recycling is a significant cost driver for rate payers, it's a requirement of the city's landfill permit and also diverts between four and five percent of the city's waste annually from the landfill so that it doesn't fill as quickly. The city hopes to use the SWIFR grant to increase that diversion rate.
The Rapid City landfill has the capacity to last for about 20 more years, at which point it will need a permit expansion to continue operating at the current site. Part of what drove the residential rate increases is the cost of building a new landfill disposal cell, called Cell 15, which cost $11 million to construct instead of the expected six million. Additionally, a surge in inflation and construction expenses over the past several years hit the city's sanitation division particularly hard.
Cell 15 is projected to last five years, and the next disposal cell to be built, Cell 19, which is not anticipated to be as complicated to build, will last 15 years.
According to a presentation to the Rapid City Legal & Finance committee on Oct. 29, Rapid City's current collection rates provide a higher level of service for a lower cost than many similar communities in the region.
On top of improvements to the recycling program, the city plans to use the SWIFR grant funding to promote economic growth through partnerships with area businesses.
"We are working with several different private sector partners to look at different materials that can be use at our landfill," said Ainslie. "And so that includes materials that could potentially be used for alternative energy sources as well as materials that can be used for different landscaping purposes. So, this grant will allow us to further those partnerships, as well as other potential partnerships with existing and new businesses in our community."
The SWIFR grant is a program under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
