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Grants available

Learn which types of projects are funded by the Environmental Trust and what grants are available.

The NSW Environmental Trust provides funding to a range of community, government and industry stakeholders to deliver projects that conserve, protect and rehabilitate the NSW environment, or that promote environmental education and sustainability.

The Trust provides this funding through a range of contestable grant programs and strategic investments. We administer both long-standing annual programs and one-off, issue-specific programs.

Our programs support:

action in conserving and restoring natural ecosystems
protecting threatened species
undertaking priority environmental research
building community skills
knowledge and capacity through education
promoting cultural awareness
dealing with pollution.

We also deliver many grant programs concerned with managing waste. These programs are part of the NSW Government’s Waste Less, Recycle More initiative.

Waste Less, Recycle More programs support and complement each other, and together form a comprehensive approach to improving the management of waste materials in New South Wales. We deliver Waste Less, Recycle More in partnership with the NSW Environment Protection Authority.

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Environmental Trust

Ongoing Environmental Trust programs

Name	Description	Eligible groups	Funding available	Next round opening	Closing date	Anticipated project announcement dates
Community recycling centres	Aimed at establishing a network of community recycling centres for householders to recycle and remove problem wastes	State and local government Private industry Not-for-profit organisations	Up to $300,000 per project	TBA	–	–
Environmental education	Supports projects that develop knowledge, skills, and commitment to sustainable behaviour, and ongoing participation in protecting the environment	Community groups Not-for-profit organisations State and local government	Tier 1: up to $60,000 per project Tier 2: from $60,001 to $250,000 per project ($1 million total)	2025	To be advised	To be advised
Environmental research	Supports applied research for local environmental problems	Research institutions Collaborations	Up to $200,000 per project ($1,000,000 in total)	2025	2025	To be advised
Landfill consolidation and environmental improvements	Provides funding for the consolidation, closure and the environmental improvement of landfills	Local government	Up to $200,000 per project	TBA	–	–
Major resource recovery infrastructure	Accelerates and stimulates investment in waste and recycling infrastructure and increases resource recovery	Local government Private industry Not-for-profit organisations	$1–5 million per project for industry and non-profits $1–10 million per project for local government	TBA	–	–
Organics collections (formerly Local government organics collection systems)	Supports councils and business to collect source separated food only, garden only, or food and garden waste and divert it from landfill	Local government	Up to $1.3 million per project for services to households.	15 September 2021	28 October 2021	January/February 2022
Organics infrastructure – processing infrastructure	Funds infrastructure and equipment to reduce food and garden organic waste going to landfill	Local government Waste-management or organics processing businesses	$25,000–$1 million per project	10 September 2021	21 October 2021	March/April 2022
Organics infrastructure – business organics recycling	Supports on-site processing or pre-processing of organics	Local government Not-for-profit organisations Private industry Universities, prisons, TAFE colleges and other government institutions	$75,000–$500,000 per project for businesses and local councils $135,000–$500,000 per project for not-for-profit organisations and government agencies	TBA	–	–
Organics infrastructure – food donation	Funds infrastructure to facilitate the collection and redistribution of food waste from businesses to people in need	Food-relief agencies (not-for-profit)	$10,000–$500,000 per project	TBA	–	–
Organics infrastructure – product quality	Funds infrastructure to improve the quality of organics outputs above regulatory requirements	Private industry Local government	$10,000–$500,000 per project	TBA	–	–
Organics infrastructure – transfer stations	Supports the development of new, or upgraded, transfer stations in the metropolitan waste levy area to separate food or food and garden recovery	Private industry Local government	$10,000–$500,000 per project	TBA	–	–
Protecting our Places	Funds protection and rehabilitation for culturally important land and water	NSW Aboriginal community organisations or groups	Up to $80,000 per project (over 2 stages) ($500,000 in total)	2025	To be advised	To be advised
Remanufacture NSW	Funds opportunities to support the NSW resource recovery sector's response to the Council of Australian Governments' waste export bans. Program is co-funded by the Australian and NSW Governments	Local government Private industry Not-for-profit organisations Research institutions	$100,000 – $3 million for infrastructure $50,000 – $1 million for trials	14 December 2021	Extended to 1 April 2022	May/June 2022
Remanufacture NSW – Regional and Remote	Funds opportunities to support the NSW resource recovery sector’s response to the Council of Australian Governments' waste export bans, with a focus on Regional and Remote area. Program is co-funded by the Australian and NSW Governments	Local government Private industry Not-for-profit organisations Research institutions	$10,000 – $1 million	8 November 2021	6 December 2021	April/May2022
Restoration and Rehabilitation	Funds ecological restoration projects	State and local government Community groups	Up to $200,000 per project ($4 million in total)	2025	–	To be advised

Page last updated 16 July 2024

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