$5 million in grants to help process Organic Waste

Written on the 9 October 2015 by Kevin Conolly

Member for Riverstone, Kevin Conolly welcomed the news that grants of between $5,000 and $5 million to reduce food and organic garden waste going to land fill are now open to businesses, government bodies, and not-for-profit organisations.

"I would like to encourage local organisations who meet the criteria to apply for these grants." said Mr Conolly

Mr Conolly said "This is another great initiative from the NSW Government to help organisations reduce organic waste across the community and is part of the Government's $465.7 million Waste Less, Recycle More initiative transforming waste management and recycling across NSW.

"It will encourage organisations to invest in the infrastructure and equipment needed to increase on-site processing of organic waste, with grants of up to 50 per cent of costs for businesses and up to 90 per cent for not-for-profits."

All organisations managing food, garden or other green waste are encouraged to take part in this program and contribute to help reduce the 1 million tonnes of organic waste that going landfill in NSW every year.

As part of this grant, applications can be made for four streams:

• Stream 1 Food and Garden Organics Processing for new and enhanced infrastructure for households or businesses;
• Stream 2 Business Organics Recycling funds for infrastructure for large businesses, institutions and organisations;
• Stream 3 Business Organics Recycling to fund the collection and redistribution of edible food waste; and
• Stream 4 Home Composting funds for small scale infrastructure like compost bins or worm farms.

Applications close on 1 December 2015. For more information and to download an application form, organisations are encouraged to go to the following website:

www.epa.nsw.gov.au/wastegrants/organic-large-small.htm

"This is a great opportunity to transform how organisations manage their organic waste, reduce waste going to landfill, and ultimately give something back to the community," Mr Conolly concluded.