The Victorian government is supporting the state’s businesses and organisations to reduce packaging waste while diverting more than 5500 tonnes of waste from landfill each year.
State minister for energy, environment and climate change Lily D’Ambrosio announced 17 Victorian organisations that will share in more than $560,000 through the Investment Support Grants – Packaging program to reduce packaging waste in their business operations.
The Investment Support Grants – Packaging programme allows small to medium sized businesses, not-for-profit organisations, and social enterprises to invest in projects that reduce, recover, and reuse packaging materials such as plastics, paper, and cardboard.
D’Ambrosio said Victoria’s recycling system was being overhauled and these grants are a small part of Victoria’s “recycling revolution”.
“We are helping businesses to reduce packaging, to give new life to our waste, and reduce the impact of disposable packaging on our environment,” D’Ambrosio said.
Among the grants is $35,000 awarded to family-owned business Happy Planet Toys, which is manufacturing a fully recyclable toy made from recycled milk bottles.
Earlier this year, the government announced Recycling Victoria: A new economy – an action plan for waste and recycling, with an investment of more than $300 million to transform the state’s recycling sector, create thousands of jobs and set Victoria up for a more sustainable future.
In addition to reducing packaging, the government also announced the investment of $1.7m in grants in 12 projects to improve the collection, storage and reprocessing of e-waste across the state.
The government said this will divert 6600 tonnes of e-plastics from landfill per year and increase e-waste reprocessing capacity by an additional 13,250 tonnes annually – the equivalent to more than 900,000 LCV TVs.
The government’s ban on e-waste to landfill in July 2019 paved the way for electronic items to be safely disposed of, reducing the harm these items have on the environment and human health and ensuring valuable resources from discarded electronic goods don’t go to waste.
