Scrap Together grants

Analysis of 38 audits in March 2020 (Rawtec 2020) found NSW FOGO services are very efficient at recycling garden organics, capturing 98% of the garden waste in kerbside bins. The same audit data shows on average 44% of food waste is captured in the FOGO bin, while on average 56% remains in the red lid landfill bin. Analysis of five bin by bin audits provides insights at a household level and found between 27% to 70% of households put no food waste in their FOGO bin at all. These households pull the average diversion efficiency of the council area downwards.

To better understand the awareness, attitudes and behaviours around food waste and FOGO services, an online survey was conducted with over 2,600 households. Using the results of this social research and the bin audit analysis, the EPA worked with council FOGO educators to develop specific behavioural and attitudinal interventions under the banner of Scrap Together. An evaluation of the FOGO Deep Dive project is available on the EPA website.

The key messages of Scrap Together are:

• Food scraps are professionally made into compost and used by farmers to improve soil.
• FOGO is a comprehensive service that can take all food scraps including fish, meat and dairy.
• People across the community are sorting their food scraps and using the FOGO service well and can share tips on how to do it.
• Every bit of food scrap matters.

A series of resources including videos, radio ads and social media content are available to promote the key messages to households on scraptogether.com.au.

Increasing the efficiency of FOGO services through this grant program and increasing the number of FOGO services through the Go FOGO grants will help achieve multiple state and national targets and commitments including:

• net zero emissions from organics landfilled post 2030 (NSW Net Zero Plan)
• halving organics to landfill by 2030 (National Waste Policy Action Plan and NSW Waste and Sustainable Materials Strategy 2041)
• increasing resource recovery to 80% (National Waste Policy Action Plan and NSW Waste and Sustainable Materials Strategy 2041.

The EPA conducted social research at the end of the Pilot and Round 1 grant projects. Findings from this research have been summarised and provided in Appendix 1 to give applicants an overview of key learnings. Applicants should review the information provided and take it into consideration when planning their projects.

Applicants must:

• be a NSW Council. Eligible councils may wish to apply as a group and have a regional project co-ordinated (and grant submitted and administered) by a regional waste group, joint or regional organisation of councils. Councils are not eligible to apply for individual funding as well as part of a joint project
• have an existing FOGO service that has been in place for at least 12 months before the application close. For group projects, all participating councils must meet this requirement
• ensure the collected FOGO is processed at a suitably licenced facility
• use the Scrap Together education materials. Examples of resources can be found at www.scraptogether.com.au
• ensure education/communications are delivered for a minimum of four months (this could be a continuous four months or broken into waves. Planning and reporting activities are in addition to the delivery period)
• include in their project as a minimum:
  • content delivered via council owned channels e.g. council’s website, social media, truck delivery, council newsletters, information in the rates notice
  • content delivered via non council channels e.g. articles or ads in local newspapers, radio, community newsletters
• if developing new material (including updating existing materials):
  • use the key messages and Scrap Together design in the development of any new education material according to the Scrappy Little Style Guide on scraptogether.com.au
  • ensure they are approved by the EPA before finalisation or use
  • enable them to be used by other councils once it’s been tested.
• submit the grant application using the SmartyGrants Platform by 4pm 29 April 2025.

Applications that do not satisfy all the above conditions will be deemed ineligible and will not be assessed.

1. A monitoring and evaluation plan must be provided as part of the application to demonstrate how applicants will measure, track and report on grants performance. A template is available on request.
2. Previous rounds required applicants to complete pre and post surveys to gauge effectiveness of projects. This round offers more flexibility to councils to measure impact. The surveys remain available to councils to use in this round if they choose. The EPA will provide grantees with a link to manage delivery themselves.

EPA research on the knowledge, attitudes and behaviours of NSW households with FOGO services is also available to inform the development of education projects. A summary of findings on communication preference and channels is provided in Appendix 1. Learn more about the social research reports.

The total funding pool for this round is $340,000.

A maximum of $15,000 is available for each council participating in the project. 

Generally, applicants can determine how the budget will be allocated to different activities, provided the items satisfy the funding conditions of the guidelines.

If successful, applicants will receive the full funding amount as an upfront payment when the letter of agreement is signed by both parties.

Co-contribution

Co-contribution is encouraged but not required for this grant. Applicants are required to detail any cash and in-kind contributions in their grant application and final report, such as:

• using existing resources owned by the applicant
• volunteer and staff time
• leveraging of communication channels, such as mailbox drops, mayoral columns and rates notices
• additional funding for paid advertising or boosting.

What will be funded

Funding is available to deliver a range of communication and education activities. Examples of activities eligible for funding include, but are not limited to:

• graphic design costs to tailor provided resources to the council and local community 
• media placement
• social media boosting
• printing
• new content creation in line with the EPA’s Scrappy Little Style Guide
• staff time to deliver the project where the hours worked are extra and not part of the project officer’s usual duties. 

What won’t be funded

Grant funding will not be provided for:

•  activities that have already been undertaken before the letter of agreement has been signed
• activities or parts of the project that are or have been funded through another EPA funding program
• projects and activities that are not directly related to increasing performance efficiency or usage of the FOGO bin
• development of resources that do not align with findings from the Scrap Together research informing best practice education
• infrastructure projects such as the buying of major capital items, defined as furniture, vehicles, building improvements and equipment, computer hardware and media equipment
• activities that target non-residential collections (i.e. business organics)
• at home organics recycling such as composting or worm farming
• projects that only focus on updating of existing FOGO communications to align with the position statement
• projects that only focus on research
• projects that only focus on food waste avoidance.

If you are unsure if an item or activity is eligible for funding, please contact the EPA’s Organics Unit at [email protected].

As well as the eligibility requirements above, successful applicants will be required to sign and return a letter of agreement confirming commitment to comply with conditions of the funding, including:

• seek EPA approval of new education material to make sure it aligns with Scrap Together key messages and style 
• tell the EPA Organics Unit of any changes in project expenditure and activities
• submit a final report on outcomes and activities done and expenditure
• hold appropriate insurance and public liability coverage 
• attend bi-monthly joint grantee meetings
• undertake monitoring and evaluation activities in accordance with the agreed plan
• seek EPA approval for any public facing materials related to the project, such as media releases
• acknowledge the support of the NSW Government on publications relating to the project, in accordance with the letter of agreement 
• invite a NSW Government representative to any launch or public event associated with this funding. 

Failure to meet all of the grant conditions may result in the grant being terminated.
Projects can focus on a particular target audience or cover the entire local government area.

The EPA commissioned social research at the end of the pilot and again at the end of the round 1 grants. Key results from this research are shown below for applicants’ consideration when developing projects. It found 93 percent of people who had seen the campaign materials were likely or very likely to put their food waste in their green lid bin. Contact the EPA organics unit for the full survey results.

Recall by channel

Survey respondents were asked on which channels they remembered seeing Scrap Together materials. The order of channel recall remained consistent across all demographics including age, time lived in area and household type and size.

Preferred channel

During the round 1 grants’ evaluation we asked survey respondents via which channels they prefer to receive information about FOGO. The results are shown in Figure 2.

Message recall

Survey respondents who reported seeing Scrap Together were asked which, if any, of these messages they specifically recalled seeing or hearing during the project. Figure 3 shows the average from the pilot and round 1 grant projects – the results remained consistent between the pilot and grants projects.

Concerns around FOGO

Previous research has shown that some people have issues or concerns about putting some or all of their food scraps into their green lid organics bin. Figure 4 shows the main concerns respondents had. The order of concerns remained consistent between the pilot and round 1 grant projects as well as across demographics.

Research on the FOGO inputs statement

As part of the social research the EPA asked questions to gain a better understanding of the community’s knowledge and response to the EPA’s FOGO position statement. The following data has been extracted from the research and provided below.