Sustainability Victoria is supporting industry and local councils to diversify and attract new investment, to attract reprocessing infrastructure and to support technologies related to recycling and manufacturing solutions.

Projects must achieve at least one of the following primary objectives:

• improve the quality of recovered target materials to increase market uptake and/or meet market specifications
• increase the use and market demand of recovered target materials in remanufacturing and to make new products
• increase the recovery and domestic reprocessing of one of the following target materials and equipment types as outlined in the Eligible Materials and Equipment Table 1 below:
  • hard-to-recycle plastics (Including e-plastics, EPS/PS, packaging (soft / flexible) plastics, agricultural plastics where there are:
    • very low recovery and recycling rates due to difficulties in recycling
    • limited infrastructure and technology solutions to support circularity in the supply chain.
  • e-waste, such as photovoltaic (PV) panels, batteries, vapes or household appliances
  • recovery of tyres to create crumb rubber for local markets (no other tyre recovery projects will be eligible)
  • liquid paperboard / liquid packaging board
  • textiles.

Additional objectives (optional):

• improve recycling outcomes by addressing critical infrastructure gaps in Australia's waste management and resource recovery system including, where possible, addressing Australia's regional and rural waste challenges
• manage target materials in line with the waste hierarchy and national regulation of waste exports
• create jobs in the resource recovery sector
• increase other economic development opportunities such as economic performance and growth of hubs
• reduce the amount and environmental impact of waste going to landfill.

The Fund aims to achieve the following outcomes:

• diversify and attract new investment to increase the quality of materials recovered for recycling
• attract reprocessing infrastructure to increase the quantity of materials re-entering manufacturing streams and improving the circularity of materials
• support technologies and processes that provide new or improved recycling and manufacturing solutions.

Eligible organisations must be one of the following organisation types:

• An Australian Business.
• A Victorian local government.
• A Social Enterprise (must be currently registered with Social Traders or prove accreditation before entering into a funding agreement).
• Other Not-for-profit organisation, ideally registered on the ACNC charity register.

Note: If the Applicant is a Trust, the Funding Agreement must be executed by the Trustee of the Trust. For example XYZ Pty Ltd as The Trustee for the XYZ Trust. The Trust as the trading entity must meet all the eligibility requirements of the fund (for example ABN).

Applicants must:

• have a current Australian Business Number (ABN). If the Applicant is a Trust, the Trust as the trading entity must meet this requirement
• have been operating for a minimum of 2 years by the application closing date (to be validated by the date that the organisation’s ABN is active from)
• be able to demonstrate financial viability to undertake the project (will meet or exceed the minimum Co-contribution requirements
• agree to comply with the Terms of Participation in Grant Programs
• agree to comply with the funding terms and conditions of the General grant funding agreement
• submit their Fair Jobs Code Pre-Assessment Certificate Number with their application if applying for $500,000 or more (exclusive of GST). A Certificate must be held prior to applying for the grant.

Individuals and unincorporated entities are not eligible for funding.

• Phone: 03 8656 6757
• Email: grants.enquiries@sustainability.vic.gov.au