The Victorian Environment Minister has announced grants for research institutes and industry of up to $100,000 towards joint projects to develop new markets for recovered resources.
The funding is provided through Sustainability Victoria’s (SV) Research and Development (R&D) program, which supports collaborations between research institutes and industry to encourage innovation in this area.
The program supports the aims of the Draft Victorian Market Development Strategy for Recovered Resources. This is designed stimulate markets for the use of recovered resources, increase job creation, develop quality products for end markets, and increase investment in products made from recovered resources.
With these R&D grants, SV seeks to help industry find and establish new markets for recovered materials, specifically glass fines and flexible plastic, which is critical in providing positive economic returns for the state.
Announcing the grants, Victoria Minister for Environment, Climate Change and Water Lisa Neville said: “This grants program will focus on ways to maximise the use of glass fines and flexible plastics for end markets, ultimately reducing the amount of these materials going to landfill.
“These two waste materials were identified from a series of market analysis reports as priority items for market development. Both materials are generally challenging to reprocess and it can be difficult to recycle them into high value products”
Successful recipients will undertake R&D projects that will lead to an increase in the use of these materials in new or existing products, or provide an opportunity for innovative processing approaches.
“The waste and recovery industry provides $2.2 billion to the Victorian economy and we will continue to invest to ensure we see more jobs created,” added Minister Neville.
SV will publish findings from the program to inform manufacturing industries of the opportunities to incorporate recovered glass fines and flexible plastics into new product developments.
Applications close on 6 January 2016. More information and application forms are available on the SV website.