Circular Infrastructure Grants have been released this afternoon  and are available to South Australian businesses and local governments that recover, handle and process recyclable materials with the opportunity to invest in equipment, technology and processes to respond to the prevailing market conditions.

• Applications $25,000 to a maximum of $300,000(excluding GST) per project are invited.  Matched funding of 50/50

• Up to $500,000 (excluding GST) may be available for large scale projects of state significance that involve significant capital expenditure.
• Councils seeking more than $300,000 (excluding GST) must demonstrate a financial commitment by at least 3 councils as evidenced through a signing of a Memorandum of Understanding

These grants will assist companies, local authorities and organisations to purchase and install infrastructure and provide innovative approaches to increase the types, quantities and quality of resources that are kept circulating in the South Australian economy for as long as possible, at their higher possible value, and to recover resources and reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill each year.

Priority will be given to:

• projects that support highest value use of resources and/or circular economy principles such as waste avoidance, reuse, repair, refurbish, remanufacture

• new or upgrade to existing infrastructure and/or equipment to enable remanufacturing/value adding of targeted material streams for local use (preferred)
• projects that support improved sorting and/or processing to enhance recoverable material quality through reduced contamination levels for local use or re-entry into export markets
• projects aimed at improving reuse, recycling and resource recovery should target recyclable materials most affected by low commodity prices, specifically:

• recovered paper, cardboard, glass and plastics

• • food waste recovery
• projects that address emerging, problematic or complex material streams such as PV panels, lithium-ion batteries, wind turbine blades, CCA treated timber and textiles – but will need to demonstrate clear end markets for materials and project viability.