EPA gives $3M in tech grants to small businesses

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is giving nearly $3 million in grants to small businesses to help them develop technology that helps the environment.

The money will go to nine businesses to develop products such as an X-ray system for electronic waste recycling to preserve rare-earth minerals and drinking water purification that uses ultraviolet technology.

{mosads}“These business are really innovating affordable, energy efficient technologies that are helping us move toward a low-carbon future,” EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy told reporters Wednesday.

“These cutting-edge companies keep America competitive … domestically and on the global stage,” McCarthy said.

The grants are part of the Small Business Innovation Research program, run by the EPA to encourage small businesses to develop new technology that helps clean the environment.

In the call with reporters Wednesday, the agency highlighted two companies that each received about $300,000: Nashville, Tenn.-based National Recovery Technologies and Imaging Systems Technology of Toledo, Ohio.

David Levine, president of the American Sustainable Business Council, joined the call to applaud the grants.

“These diverse companies are proving once again that small business plays an important role in creating jobs, driving innovation, and it continues to be the backbone of the economy,” he said.

McCarthy used the announcement reinforce an argument she has promoted in recent months: that policies that help the environment can also help the economy and businesses.

“A strong, world-leading economy depends on a healthy environment, stable climate,” she said. “That principle has helped drive America’s energy progress.”