This morning Minister for State Development, Manufacturing, Infrastructure and Planning, Cameron Dick, released the funding guidelines for the Resource Recovery Industry Development Program – a $100 million fund to remove waste from landfill.
“In the recent State Budget, $100 million was made available over three years to develop a high-value resource recovery and recycling industry,” the Minister announced.
The Queensland Government is calling for interested parties to come forward with their project proposals to help change the face of the resource recovery industry in Queensland. As the State Government looks to build a sustainable economy, the Minister said initiatives like this not only support the development of new industries, they support Queensland investment and jobs as well.
“Our aim is to make Queensland a world leader in projects involving resource recovery, recycling and the re-manufacturing of materials to turn waste to energy,” he said.
“Economically, we know such projects have the potential to generate new jobs for our communities and build confidence for business to invest in Queensland, and we know encouraging investment and innovation in the waste industry will also deliver long-term benefits environmentally.”
The program will offer three different streams, capturing projects which vary in scale and the level of support they require:
- Stream one is a rounds-based capital grants stream with dollar-for-dollar grants available up to $5 million to provide funding for infrastructure projects and capital investments in new processing and technological capabilities.
- Stream two is a broad incentives stream to attract or expand major resource recovery operations to deliver significant landfill diversion and resource recovery outcomes.
- Stream three involves funding towards capital-intensive, long lifecycle projects which require support for investigations to assist with final investment decisions for Queensland.
The Minister said the program aims to support a range of projects with significant employment and supply chain opportunities.
“These projects will also create new products from waste, growing industry and reducing the impact on our environment,” he said, “this funding will be available to support local governments and existing businesses and will attract new major projects to Queensland.”
Minister for Environment, Leeanne Enoch said research indicates that for every 10,000 tonnes of waste that goes to landfill, less than three jobs are supported. But if that same waste was recycled, more than nine jobs would be supported.
Last week a waste levy legislation was introduced into Queensland Parliament to stop interstate waste being dumped Queensland.
“The waste levy will give industry the confidence it needs to invest in alternative and innovative recycling technologies to grow the sector and create jobs.”
Waste Management Association of Australia CEO, Gayle Sloan said recycling companies are highly innovative, “and these funding streams will improve their ability to improve resource recovery outcomes”.
Funding through streams two and three have now been made available through application. Expressions of interest for stream one will remain open until Friday, October 5. Further to this, the Government have stated that they anticipate that the first projects will be funded within the first half of 2019.
More information on this announcement can be found here.