Te Pūtea Whakamauru Para Waste Minimisation Fund

Any New Zealand-based legal entity can apply for funding. However, there are other eligibility criteria that your proposal must meet to be considered.

Read the gazetted criteria [Gazette website]. 

Infrastructure

Infrastructure to support diversion of priority materials from landfill, through improved: 

• sorting
• separation
• resource recovery
• processing.

Projects must intend to divert from landfill at least one of the following materials to be eligible for funding

• Construction and demolition (C&D) waste – timber, plasterboard, and C&D-related plastics such as building wrap
• Organic – food and green waste, paper and cardboard
• Plastics – plastics 1, 2 and 5, coloured PET, farm plastics such as bale wrap, and soft plastics 

• New and upgraded resource recovery centres and transfer stations to support better separation of materials, particularly C&D waste and organics.
• C&D sorting facilities (eg, to recover timber and other materials).
• Timber processing facilities.
• Organics processing facilities (eg, compost, anaerobic digestion, and other technologies such as vermiculture or insect farming etc.) 
• Projects addressing commercial food waste.
• Household food scraps (and where appropriate green waste) kerbside collection roll-out (funding available to councils only).
• Projects increasing and/or improving recycling and onshore processing of plastics 1, 2 and 5.
• Feasibility studies and business cases to deliver on the above priorities. 

• Existing business-as-usual activities. Funding is not eligible for ongoing operational costs.
• Projects where the same financial support is already provided by other government agencies.
• Retrospective costs for waste minimisation projects that have already begun or been completed.
• Projects with access to other sources of capital and/or that can self-fund.
• Projects outside Aotearoa New Zealand.
• Administrative costs for preparing WMF applications, or costs related to fundraising.
• In-kind contributions, such as volunteer time or facilities provided by your organisation, are not considered co-funding.
• Debt servicing.
• Purchase of land.

The minimum grant sizes are:

• $100,000 – for business cases, feasibility studies and pilots
• $250,000 – for all other project types

The WMF will fund a portion of your project. As a guideline:

• For primarily commercial proposals, a maximum of 40 per cent of the total cost will be contributed by the WMF.
• Proposals with a strong benefit to the public may expect a 50 per cent contribution.
• In exceptional cases where there are highly compelling benefits to the public, the WMF may contribute up to 75 per cent of the total cost.

Step 1 – Check your project eligibility and alignment

Read our gazetted criteria [Gazette website] to check that your project is eligible.

Read the What is being funded section and ensure that your project aligns with the current investment priorities. 

Step 2 - Get in touch

Fill out our short enquiry form if you think your project is eligible and aligns with what is being funded.

The WMF Guide for applicants includes information about the enquiry form as well as the application stage. Because the enquiry form is managed through our Funds Management System (FMS), our FMS User guide will help to get you started.

Read the WMF Guide for applicants.

Read the Fund Management System User guide .

Once we receive your form, we will get in touch within three weeks to inform you of next steps.

Step 3 – Application stage

If invited to the application stage, your application will build on the information you provided in the enquiry form.

Once completed and submitted, your application will be assessed. This process may take between three to five months to complete depending on the size, scope, and complexity of the application.

Projects requesting more than $1 million in funding

For projects requesting over $1 million in funding, a business case, emissions calculations and financial documentation will be required. 

These projects will require additional assessment steps including an independent panel review and approval by the Minister of the Environment.

Step 4 – Contracting stage

If your funding is approved, you will begin contracting. At the contracting stage, you will be required to submit a project plan and detailed budget. Your investment manager will provide guidelines to assist you with this.

The contract project planning may be subject to external due diligence and/or a legal review depending on the size and complexity of your project. Successful completion of these steps will lead to signing the Deed of Funding.

The contracting stage may take between three to five months to complete. Once the deed is signed, your project is active. 

Deed of funding - example  [PDF, 327 KB]

Since 2010, there has been $211 million in grant funding to over 344 organisations for waste reduction initiatives.

Find information on these initiatives through our interactive dashboard. This is regularly updated with new projects as they are confirmed and announced.