Grants up to $20 million open for plastics recycling technology projects

Applications opened on Tuesday morning for the Plastics Technology stream of the federal Recycling Modernisation Fund, offering grant funding of between $1 million and $20 million each to projects concerned with hard-to-recycle plastics.

According to a statement from federal environment minister Tanya Plibersek, up to $60 million in total would support projects including:

• advanced recycling to turn plastic back into oil for re-use in food-grade packaging
• commercialisation of trial technology targeting ways to keep hard-to-recycle plastics in use
• extraction and processing of plastics from e-waste into valuable products
• diverting more plastics from landfill using advanced sorting, separation and de-contamination technology such as optical or robotic machinery.

Grants can cover up to 50 per cent of project costs.

“The funding will invest in exciting technologies that could help solve challenges in recycling plastic waste like soft plastics going into landfill,” said Plibersek.

“Australians use about 3.8 million tonnes of plastic a year and dispose of about 2.7 million tonnes,  that’s about 50 times the weight of the Sydney Harbour Bridge being thrown out each year. “

Applications are open until November 13. Eligibility and other information is available here.

Separately, Plibersek also announced the release of a discussion paper and consultation period on Tuesday morning for a national framework for recycled material traceability. The framework is aimed at increasing trust in recycled materials in products and addressing greenwashing.

Picture: credit www.wwf.org.au