Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the funding was part of his Government’s commitment to work with the states to establish a timetable to ban the export of waste plastic, paper, glass and tyres.
“We are committed to protecting our nation’s environment while also building our capacity to turn recycling into products that people want and need,” the Prime Minister said.
“By engaging industry and researchers we can make sure we’re seeing these changes introduced in a way that cuts costs for businesses and ultimately even creates jobs.”
Minister for Industry, Science and Technology Karen Andrews said the funding would create Australian jobs, while reducing global plastic pollution.
“This funding will strengthen Australia’s recycling industry and help us achieve higher recycling rates,” Minister Andrews said.
“Boosting our onshore plastic recycling industry has the potential to create over three times as many jobs as exporting our plastic waste, ensuring a more sustainable and prosperous future.”
Recent figures suggest only 12 per cent of the 103kg of plastic waste generated per person in Australia each year is recycled, mostly overseas.
This funding will be made available through Round 8 of the Government’s Cooperative Research Centres Projects (CRC-P) grants which open today.
In addition to the funding for projects in plastic recycling, $10.8 million is available for critical minerals projects. The round is also open to general applications from all industry sectors.
CRC-P grants are up to $3 million, over a period of up to three years.
$233 million in funding has been committed to CRC-Ps since 2016 and this commitment further builds on the Morrison Government’s plan to protect our environment, strengthen Australian industry and create 1.25 million new jobs in the next five years.
Applications for Round 8 will close at 5:00pm AEST, 24 September 2019.
