New fund to help reduce waste

2 December 2013

Reuse, recycle and recover are the catch words for people wanting money from a new fund to encourage waste reduction.

Waipa District Council has set aside $40,000 a year to support individuals, groups and businesses to develop projects to minimise waste. The funds are provided to council by the Ministry for the Environment from the waste levy.

Manager road corridor Dawn Inglis said the fund was an important step towards helping people to become more aware of how much we waste every day.

We believe there are still large volumes of material going to landfill which we could easily, with a little bit of thought, be used in another way. The fund is an important step in getting people to begin doing something different that leads to long-term waste reduction, she said.

Applications for grants must benefit the Waipa district. Those applying could include community groups, schools, early childhood centres, iwi/Maori organisations or local businesses. Grants are capped at $10,000 althought there is some discretion to consider larger projects.

Ms Inglis said council was looking for new and innovative projects focussed on priority areas including organic and commercial waste, resource recovery initiatives and data collection and auditing. Council would not be funding waste disposal or clean-ups.

What we are wanting is to create some long-term change in the way people think and what they do about waste, she said.

Fund applications will open on 15 January 2014 and close on Friday 28 February 2014.

Ends

For further information please contact:

Dawn Inglis, Manager Road Corridor

Ph: (07) 8720083

Cell: 027 554 2221

Email: dawn.inglis@waipadc.govt.nz