Remanufacture NSW Grants Program

Remanufacture NSW is a $35 million funding program jointly funded by the Australian Government’s Recycling Modernisation Fund and the NSW Government’s Waste Less, Recycle More initiative. It is delivered by the NSW Environmental Trust in partnership with the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA). 

The program aims to maximise recycling and reuse activities, contributing to meeting the Australian and NSW Governments’ resource recovery targets and keeping resources within the circular economy.

Remanufacture NSW has had 3 funding rounds:

• Round 1 and Round 2 which offered funding under 2 streams
  • Stream 1 – infrastructure: for  the establishment of new recycling infrastructure and equipment
  • Stream 2 –  trials: for innovative trials to address recycling of plastic, paper, cardboard, glass and tyres
• Ad-hoc Plastics Technology round.

Purpose

Remanufacture NSW offered grant funding to support the NSW resource recovery sectors response to changes brought about by the decision to ban the export of unbeneficiated waste plastic, paper, cardboard, tyres and glass. Remanufacture NSW ensures New South Wales leads by example and maximises recycling and reuse activities while keeping materials within the productive economy.

Under Remanufacture NSW Stream 1, co-funding could be provided for the establishment of new recycling infrastructure and equipment, including (but not limited to):

• improving sorting technology and/or increased capacity for plastic, paper and cardboard products at materials recovery facilities
• improving cleaning technology for plastic products at waste facilities
• increasing mixed plastics processing capacity
• building capacity to process higher value single stream plastics such as polyethylene terephthalate and high-density polyethylene
• building capacity to process single stream plastics other than polyethylene terephthalate and high-density polyethylene and compound materials
• tyre recycling and reuse technology and infrastructure
• increasing the use of recyclable and recycled materials in manufacturing and civil construction
• mobile and stationary processing equipment.

Under Remanufacture NSW Stream 2, co-funding could be provided for innovative trials to address plastic, paper, cardboard, tyres and glass, including, but not limited to:

• trials that support the reuse of the waste export ban materials listed above
• trials that aim to increase the capacity of manufacturers to use recycled material in their products and to provide secure markets for these recycled materials (examples include new/modified equipment to increase the use of recycled materials, such as post-consumer plastic, in the manufacture of goods or products)
• trials that test new infrastructure/equipment to sort, wash, dry, shred, flake, granulate or pelletise materials
• trials that test equipment upgrades or process improvements to existing materials recovery facilities (MRFs) to increase the quality of output materials, reduce contamination and/or increase capacity
• trials that test upgrading plastic sorting, processing and manufacturing technology to produce cleaner streams of plastic and have the potential to use larger amounts of recycled plastics
• trials that test new methods of paper beneficiation so that local paper mills can accept higher volumes of paper and cardboard
• trials that test new methodologies or technologies to process Liquid Paper Board
• trials that test glass processing, remanufacturing and new applications for recycled glass
• trials that test plastic processing, remanufacturing and new applications for recycled plastics
• trials that test mobile processing equipment
• trials that use new technologies or methods to reuse or recycle end-of-life tyres.

Ad-Hoc Plastics Technology round

In 2023, the Australian Government gave states and territories an additional opportunity to put forward grant funding applications from organisations for projects focusing on hard-to-recycle plastics. This was part of the Commonwealth’s national $60-million Recycling Modernisation Fund. NSW EPA ran a round, ‘NSW Recycling Modernisation Fund – Plastics Technology stream’, to identify suitable proposals that could be put forward for Commonwealth funding consideration.

Several proposals, though unsuccessful under the national stream outlined above, were deemed to have merit. They were considered for grant funding by the NSW Environmental Trust under a Remanufacture NSW - Ad-Hoc Plastics Technology round. 

Of the projects considered under this round, approximately $11 million was awarded to 2 projects that support advanced and innovative recycling solutions for hard to recycle plastics, such as soft plastics.
 

When can applications be made?

The program is now closed.

Application advisory service

The EPA provided a free application advisory service (AAS) to support eligible applicants to prepare their grant applications. This service was provided by an independent contractor.

This service is now closed.