The third round of the NSW Local Government Organics Collection Systems and Love Food Hate Waste grants closes next month.
Applications close in late September for the funding, which is offered as part of the Waste Less, Recycle More initiative delivered in partnership with the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA). Councils, community groups and not-for-profits can apply for financial support to reduce and recycle food waste.
The round three grants will be taken from the $16.2 million Local Government Organics Collections Systems and $1.4 million Love Food Hate Waste programs in conjunction with the Environment Trust.
Both initiatives are contributing significantly to reducing and recycling food waste in NSW. The first two rounds of the Local Government Organics Collection Systems program saw $12.3 million awarded to 31 councils to divert an additional 110,000 tonnes of food and garden waste from landfill each year.
This funding helped provide 200,000 homes with new kerb-side organics collection services and 443,000 new green-lid bins and kitchen caddies to help recycle food waste.
The $617,000 awarded under the last Love Food Hate Waste program saw the creation of 19 projects that are educating NSW householders on how to waste less food.
The Local Government Organics Collection program will provide up to $1.3 million to individual local councils to introduce new or enhanced collections services for food and/or garden waste. The closing date for applications is 22 September.
The Love Food Hate Waste 2015 program will offer grants between $5,000 and $70,000 for education projects that will help households and businesses develop the skills and knowledge they need to waste less food. It is open to local councils, non-governmental organisations, community groups, and not-for-profits. Applications close on 30 September.
Ahead of the closing date, EPA NSW is holding ‘It’s a Crime to Waste Food’ – a grant information session on Wednesday 19 August between 10.00am and 3.30pm in Sydney.
For more information, links to download application forms and guidelines, visit the EPA NSW website.