Waste Minimisation Community Fund
Every year Waipā District Council receives Ministry for the Environment funding from the Waste Disposal Levy, to ‘promote or achieve waste minimisation’ in our district. We need as many people as possible working on waste minimisation in Waipā to make a dent in the amount of waste created.
There is $50,000 up for grabs to support projects that 'rethink, reduce and reuse' waste. Local individuals, marae, organisations, educators and community groups are encouraged to apply for funding if they have an initiative or project that will reduce waste. See our previous fund recipients here.
Waste Minimisation Community Fund
The Waste Minimisation Community Fund is offered annually between March – April (exact dates are confirmed at the start of the year).
You can apply at any time - early applications or conversations are welcome, although all applications will be assessed together in April. Let us know if you’d like to be notified when the fund opens.
Who can apply for funding?
The fund can support individuals, community groups, businesses, Iwi/Māori organisations and education providers who want to deliver a waste minimisation initiative or project for their community in the Waipā district.
Read this first!
We’ve put together everything you need to know about the fund.
Please read this before you apply. For example, we do not fund projects related to disposal of waste to landfill, or recycling bins.
Once you’ve had a read, get in touch with us if you’d like to road-test your project idea. We are more than happy to help you to develop your idea or guide you through the application – we are here to help! Email our friendly Waste Minimisation Team to chat: wastefund@waipadc.govt.nz
Apply here
Applications for the 2024/25 Waste Minimisation Community Fund have now closed.
We are proud to have supported these amazing outcomes over the past three years and are excited to see what your idea might be this year!
All Heart NZ
Received funding in 2023-24 / Resource Recovery Centre - feasibility study
Previous fund recipients, All Heart NZ, partner with businesses to ReDirect and Rethink corporate and construction waste. Their idea to carry out a feasibility study to see whether setting up a commercial resource recovery centre in the Waikato is a viable option received joint funding from Waipā District Council and Hamilton City Council.
The Recreators
Received funding 2023-24 / In-person workshops
Not only did the Recreators teach people valuable woodworking and power tool skills, but they did so while diverting construction and demolition waste from landfill!
Their in-person workshops held in Pirongia taught people while deconstructed wood was repurposed and turned into cutting boards and planter boxes by approximately 30 participants. Another workshop is scheduled for mid-2024 in Cambridge.
Paterangi School
Received funding in 2023-24 / Replace compost facilities
The students at Paterangi School were able to replace their compost facilities with an upgraded 3-bay system and purchase a robust chipper for mulching green waste with the funding they received.
They are now able to compost their food, shredded paper, garden and landscape waste onsite. They are working towards accepting food scraps from their local community in 2024.
Pollin8
Received funding in 2023-24 / Audit Assist Tool
Local Waipa company, Pollin8, applied for funding to develop innovative technology that would reduce the contamination in kerbside recycling bins. Using cameras and image recognition software on recycling trucks, their Audit Assist Tool can provide automatic identification of contamination.
This is a huge achievement which we are excited to see them progress further in the future.
Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari
Received funding in 2023-24 / Reduce landfill waste
This project aims to reduce landfill waste by replacing disposable tracking cards with permanent trail cameras on the main mountain interior monitoring lines.
Sanctuary Mountain received funding to purchase 7 trail cameras, SD cards and batteries. As a pilot, 4 trail cameras have been placed on monitoring lines and tracking card use was fully discontinued in these areas.
The aim is to reduce landfill waste by 14kg by June 2024. All interior tracking cards will be replaced by trail cameras in the long-term, subject to funding.
TechLeap
Received funding in 2023-24 / Digital tech and sustainable tech
TechLeap offers online and in-person professional development for teachers around digital tech and sustainable tech. They also offer engaging and creative tech classes for students 7 - 15 years old.
They received funding to create class hire kits of surplus-to-requirements second-hand smartphones, as well as formulating lessons plans and bi-lingual resources for students and Kaiako.
While the scheme continues to grow, the kits have been popular at Cambridge East School, Goodwood School and Cambridge Middle School.
Berm Garden Project
Received funding in 2023-24 / Community gardens
Street Harvest applied for funding to install community gardens on Cambridge street berms to support food security, divert food waste from landfill, and promote neighbourly connection.
The gardens include a 'Sub pod' worm farm for nearby residents to drop off their food scraps, and are serviced and replanted by local team Outer Haven to ensure maximum productivity for the community.
They have been a popular resource and point of interest for people passing by - watch this space!
Treadlite NZ
Received funding 2022-23 / Reuse of waste tyres
Treadlite provided our Waipā community with the opportunity to clear waste tyres out of garages and safely dispose of them for free.
The tyres were then processed through Treadlite’s processing plant which puts the tyres through four different stages to create upcycled granules of rubber that are used for playground matting, artificial sports fields, mats and gym flooring.