Community waste grant winners announced

Eight community projects to reduce waste will be awarded grants ranging between $4390 and $20,000 from the WA Government’s Community Grants Scheme.

WA Environment Minister Bill Marmion announced that grant recipients would share $94,727 in funding for local recycling, re-use and community education initiatives.

“The grant recipients are from the Perth, Kimberley, Goldfields, Wheatbelt and South Coast regions and have all shown exciting, innovative approaches to the management of waste in their local communities,” Marmion said.

The successful projects are:

• Ardyaloon - $20,000 for a project to replace the use of plastic shopping bags in a remote Kimberley community
• Art Gold - $18,500 to run a series of workshops to educate Goldfields communities about using waste materials as art resources
• Avon Valley Environmental Society - $7500 to build a recycling trailer for day-to-day use in semi-rural communities
• Murdoch University Sustainability Team - $5000 to reduce plastic water bottle waste by providing re-usable containers
• Nirumbuk Aboriginal Corporation - $20,000 for baling equipment to recycle drink containers from a community near Broome
• Rainbow Coast Neighbourhood Centre - $9542 to provide composting and recycling workshops for marginalised members of the community in the Albany region
• Transition Town Guildford - $4390 to educate the community about using backyard poultry to reduce household kitchen waste
• Waringarri Aboriginal Corporation - $9795 for equipment to crush waste glass in Kununurra for use in community art projects

The Minister said the Community Grants Scheme formed part of the Western Australian Waste Strategy, which highlighted the cooperative effort required from all levels of government, industry, community groups, households and individuals to significantly reduce waste.

“These community projects help encourage people at a local level to take up the waste reduction challenge,” he said.

More than $1 million, supporting over 110 projects, has been allocated under the scheme since 2004. The next round of grant applications will open soon at http://www.zerowaste.wa.gov.au/programs/grants/community-grants-scheme.