Grants are now open for the second round of the Regional Recycling Fund which will invest $34.9 million in regional communities across the state over three years. The fund aims to help create local circular economies by establishing regional small material recovery facilities and optimising Victoria’s resource recovery and transfer station network.

Grants are available to build or upgrade material recovery facilities that extract at least one material from municipal, commercial and/or industrial waste streams. Applications are welcome from private businesses, regional local governments, social enterprises, and not-for-profits. The Government strongly encourages social enterprises and First Nations businesses and organisations to apply.

Minister for the Environment and Climate Action, Lily D’Ambrosio, said the funding will assist the Government in reaching its waste targets.

“These regional facilities are the building blocks for a robust recycling network that will help us divert 80 per cent of waste from landfill by 2030,” she said in a statement.

The first stage of the Regional Recycling Fund focused on upgrading regional resource recovery facilities with eleven organisations receiving funding and leveraging substantial private investment from successful projects.

As part of the first round of funding, the Geelong Resource Recovery Centre and Transfer Station received $329,000, enabling an increase in capacity to handle paper and cardboard, and separating glass and plastic bottles.

The Eaglehawk Landfill and Transfer Station and Strathfieldsaye Transfer Station and Resource Recovery Centre (City of Greater Bendigo) also received funding in the first round, enabling the removal of an additional 400 tonnes per annum of soft plastics from landfill in total at both sites.

The Lions Club of Dimboola, a social enterprise, was successful in its bid to purchase its own material baler. This enabled them to collect an additional 30 tonnes per annum of cardboard, paper, and plastics in its operations.

Grants for Round 2 of the Regional Recycling Fund close at 4pm on Thursday 27 October 2022. For more information, visit the Victorian Government’s website.