Muswellbook Shire Council is getting a $300,000 Commonwealth grant to expand its organics recycling facility to include food organics.
The NSW council project was one of eight organic processing facilities to secure co-investment of $10 million from the Food Waste for Healthy Soils Fund.
NSW is the first state to have projects approved under the fund, which aims to divert up to 3.4 million tonnes of food and organic waste from landfills across Australia.
Federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley said the $10 million investment will generate an additional $30.7 million of industry investment in new and upgraded facilities, many of them in regional NSW.
“By co-investing with states and territories … we [can] hopefully move closer to a time when every household has access to its own FOGO (food organic and garden organic) bin,” she said.
Assistant Minister for Waste Reduction and Environmental Management Trevor Evans said that the fund will help progress efforts to recover 80 percent of organic waste materials by 2030 as set out in the National Waste Policy Action Plan.
“If we can reach the 80 percent target we will generate $401 million in value-add to the Australian economy, support up to 2,700 additional jobs in the organics recycling industry, and avoid over two million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions,” Assistant Minister Evans said.