Community litter grants

Program snapshot

Eligible bodies: NSW community groups

Contact: (02) 9995 5000 or litter.prevention@epa.nsw.gov.au

Status: Round 6 Community Litter Grant applications closed on 28 July 2020.

Managed by: The NSW EPA

The Community Litter Grants are funded by the nine-year $802 million Waste Less, Recycle More initiative. The Community Litter Grants program started in 2012 and has run over five rounds.

To apply for funding, a community group must be a non-government, not-for-profit organisation. You must have your own constitution and be incorporated under the law of a state or territory of Australia as an incorporated association, company or cooperative society. All projects must be completed by September 2021.

Aims

The aim of the Community Litter Grant program is to help deliver the NSW Government target to reduce litter by 40% by 2020. All funded projects must include direct community leadership and participation in the development of litter prevention activities.

For more information, contact EPA Litter Prevention unit at litter.prevention@epa.nsw.gov.

This program is closed for applications. For information only you can download

Round 6 program

Grant funding for round 6 was available in two streams.

Stream 1: On-Ground litter prevention projects - $4,000 to $40,000

For groups who want to act on a locally identified litter issue at one or more locations
Projects in this stream will use proven methods of litter prevention to support the motivation of the community group to reduce litter.

Stream 2: Own It and Act partnership projects - $50,000 to $90,000

Projects in this stream will be longer-term strategic state or regional litter prevention initiatives that may not be site-specific.
Projects must demonstrate how they build leadership and capacity of community groups to deliver ongoing litter prevention outcomes.
Projects in this stream must align with and support the Own It and Act strategic framework developed by the DPIE Litter Prevention Unit.

Round 5 program

Amount awarded: $263,646

Status: Closed – Implementation January 2020 to April 2021

For the first time Community Litter Grant funding was provided in two streams.

Stream 1: Local single-community group projects - $4,000 to $10,000
This stream is for a community group to conduct a litter prevention project at a single littered location. It is intended for groups who are taking their first steps in the litter prevention journey.

Stream 2: Multi-site and/or multi-organisation - $20,000 to $70,000
This stream is for larger organisations that are able to work across multiple sites and involve multiple groups. It is intended for groups with the capacity to engage in litter prevention at scale and over the long term.

Round 5 recipients – Stream 1

Organisation	Amount	Project summary
Lake Macquarie Sustainable Neighbourhood Alliance	$7,720	Plastic Free Cafes The project will collaborate with Lake Macquarie City Council to promote the program and support local café operators to subsidise the sale of high-quality reusable coffee cups and to trial reusable straws. The project will aim to establish a new norm to prefer reusable items over single-use by encouraging coffee drinkers to purchase and use reusable coffee cups.
Macarthur Diversity Services Initiative	$5,000	Airds Litterbusters This project aims to engage the users of basketball courts near local shops to clean up and keep their location clean of discarded glass beverage containers and takeaway packaging. Community events will provide a focus to promote the ‘Airds Clean Up Crew’ of volunteers to support the projects.
Macarthur Diversity Services Initiative	$5,500	Claymore Litterbusters This project will adopt a community development approach to tackling litter in a walkway connecting a residential area with the local shops. Residents will be engaged to form the Claymore Litterbusters project to engage other residents, school children and mothers with children who regularly use the walkway with litter prevention messages, including street barbecues, clean-up events and school outreach
Macquarie Shores Swimming Club	$10,000	The Lake Starts Here This project will aim to beautify a well-used local walkway along a creekline and bring it from a state of neglect to an area in which locals take pride and keep litter free. Local Litter Champions will be promoted and will involve local indigenous and non-indigenous community members to care for country. An integrated approach to litter prevention will include clean-up, installation of bins, art work and the Hey You Mob! message.
Tathra Surf Life Saving Club	$9,950	Tathra Beach Litter Patrol To accommodate the heavy use of Tathra Beach during summer months, bins with bin enclosures will be installed at the two main entrances to the beach, along with signage, floor decals and cigarette butt bins. A corrosion-resistant trailer will be designed and built to take onto the beach and provide bin facilities for the users of the beach. Litter patrols with encourage beach users to keep the beach clean, with clean up kits provided as a means of both keeping it clean and raising awareness of the impact of littering.

Round 5 recipients – Stream 2

Organisation	Amount	Project summary
Ethnic Communities Council of NSW	$49,590	CALD Communities Litter Less This project will work in partnership with Sydney Olympic Park Authority recruiting bilingual educators to reach out to users of picnic sites to prevent litter. Through an initial engagement to capture user’s views of litter and the location, the program will aim to provide litter prevention messages and prompts to put rubbish in bins in community languages. At each site, there will be a ‘dashboard’ to promote litter prevention messages and provide feedback on the program’s effectiveness.
Seabin Foundation Ltd	$69,572	Connecting Seabin Data with Communities Working in four locations along the north NSW coast, this project will focus on litter in waterways and help local communities draw the link with litter on adjacent land. By raising awareness of debris in waterways and littering behaviour nearby on the land, the project aims to reduce litter found both on land and captured in nearby Seabins. A key focus is working with nearby businesses and boat owners to promote the litter prevention message through outreach to customers and community members.
Take 3	$68,800	Take 3 Surf Life Saving Project Working with Surf Saving Clubs to lead litter prevention initiatives at popular beaches, this project harnesses earlier success of Take 3 to reach out to beach users to reduce littering and care for the Shoalhaven coast. Resources will be developed to provide guidance for other SLCs beyond the life of the project, to help them understand litter prevention and run litter effective prevention projects at their own beaches.
Total Environment Centre	$37,514	Reducing Litter in Dee Why Lagoon Catchment Targeting an area with high conservation value, this project will incorporate data developed through the Australian Microplastic Assessment Program (AUSMAP) to develop litter prevention strategies in two parts of the Dee Why Lagoon catchment. Source reduction data derived from AUSMAP and from small litter traps in stormwater drains will be 'triangulated' with data from the Local Litter Check to develop two related approaches to litter prevention, one focused on light industrial zone and the other on sporting fields. Working in partnership with Surfrider Foundation, targeted litter prevention campaigns will focus on plastic items that are otherwise destined to break down into microplastics in the marine environment