Sustainability Victoria has led the modernisation and upgrading of Victoria’s recycling infrastructure to ensure that we have the right future capacity for the processing and recovery of paper, plastic, glass, tyres, textiles, organics, and hazardous waste.
We are the lead delivery partner for recycling modernisation and infrastructure upgrades across Victoria. Sustainability Victoria provides the required upgrade roadmap, attracts and recruits the right industry partners in the right locations, and designs and facilitates the financial grants program to successful recipients.
The development of Victoria’s recycling infrastructure is one of our most complex and large-scale programs. It begins with Sustainability Victoria providing the state government with the roadmap for key priority materials, supply chains and emerging materials, so that we prioritise what Victoria needs. The next stage is for us to design a series of financial incentives that will attract the right partners in the right locations across Victoria.
This can mean grant programs are separated into different streams, with separate programs for plastics, organics and glass for example, prioritised to ensure that grant applications respond to the areas of critical need, and create new jobs in the local economy. Ultimately the allocation of funding to projects is decided by the state government, from our recommendations based on the gaps identified in recycling capacity.
Between 2017 and 2021 the government contribution was funded by the state government, and since 2022 it has been supported by a combination of state and federal funding, in response to the creation of the national Recycling Modernisation Fund (RMF) which is provided to the states and territories under the 'Federation Funding Agreement – Environment, and the National Partnership on Recycling Infrastructure.'