News

The Australian Government has announced an additional $60 million through the Recycling Modernisation Fund’s (RMF) new Plastics Technology stream.

The RMF Plastics Technology stream is intended to deliver national solutions that drive significant increases in Australia’s recycling and recovery rates for hard-to-recycle plastics and increase collaboration across supply chains to promote a safe circular economy.

Funding is available for projects that target:

• plastics in waste streams where there are very low recovery and recycling rates because of difficulties in recycling
• plastic waste streams where there is currently limited infrastructure and technology solutions to support circularity in the supply chain, such as soft plastics.

Further information about the RMF Plastics Technology stream and the funding guidelines can be found on the Australian government’s webpage.

The Department of Water and Environmental Regulation (the department) is administering the Western Australian application process on behalf of the Australian Government, and is particularly interested in proposals using advanced technologies to deliver:

• processing of commercial film plastics (including linear low-density polyethylene [LLDPE])
• a commercial-scale pilot for an advanced recycling facility that can process industry and/or consumer soft plastic
• recovery of non-hazardous plastic through e-waste processing.

Project proponents may apply for a minimum grant of $1 million and a maximum grant of $20 million and submissions must include at least a 50 per cent contribution towards eligible project costs from the project proponent or, in the case of a consortium proposal, the consortium members.

The department is seeking expressions of interest from industry proponents by Monday 14 August 2023, and these can be lodged via the department’s SmartyGrants portal.