Discover federal waste and recycling datasets via the data.gov CKAN Action API
domain: Data.gov CKAN API (catalog.data.gov) · 4 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
Sampled — shipped under file-level sampling, not individually fact-checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗
Steps
Call the CKAN Action API at catalog.data.gov/api/3/action/package_search with a query such as q=recycling or q=solid+waste.
Register for a Data.gov API key if higher rate limits or sustained programmatic use are needed.
Parse the returned package metadata (title, organization, resources) to find direct links to the underlying agency dataset or API, such as EPA Envirofacts or CalRecycle.
Follow the resource URL to the source agency's own API or download, since data.gov itself only hosts metadata.
Known gotchas
The data.gov catalog indexes metadata and links only - it does not proxy or host the actual dataset content, so the real integration work happens against the linked source system.
Search relevance varies by agency tagging quality; a keyword search for 'recycling' may miss relevant datasets tagged only as 'solid waste' or vice versa - try multiple query terms.
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