Waitaki Waste Minimisation Fund

1. The fund is contestable and has total of $30,000 to distribute annually. This amount may be altered at the Councils discretion. Each application will be assessed on its merits on a case-by-case basis. All decisions made by Waitaki District Council will be final.
2. Funds are available up to $5,000 (exclusive of GST) per project. Larger projects may be considered on their merit.
3. Council may be able to help suitable projects with non-financial assistance such as venue use and equipment for presentations.
4. If eligible projects are unsuccessful due to over subscription to the fund, applicants may submit an application in subsequent funding rounds.

Waitaki Waste Minimisation Fund Information Guide(PDF, 237KB)

1. Project must be located within or benefit the Waitaki district.
2. Project must align with the Council’s Waste Minimisation and Management Plan(PDF, 6MB) .
3. Waste minimisation must be the core of the project, not general sustainability.
4. Projects must promote, educate or achieve waste minimisation.
5. Funds must be utilised by 30 August of the following year.
6. Applicants will be prepared to give a progress update (verbal, email, face-to-face) and complete a final report (written) within six weeks of completion.

• Behaviour change and educational programmes.
• Events, workshops, peer-to-peer learning.
• Feasibility studies and business cases for larger projects.
• Monitoring, surveys, data collection and waste auditing.
• Research and development for alternatives to a waste problem/product.
• Social enterprise start up. Which is using waste as a resource to make money and create social or environmental benefit.

• Waste disposal or clean ups. Contact Keep NZ Beautiful, Sustainable Coastlines for support for clean ups.
• Existing activities or ongoing financial support of current activities.
• Recycling or waste services.
• Bins or containers. You can apply to the Packaging Forum for support.
• Work that has already been completed.

Council is responsible for reporting to the Ministry for the Environment on the Waitaki Waste Minimisation Fund. To do this and prove our funding was effective, we need successful applicants to plan for evaluation of their project. Consider the outcomes you want and think about how you will be able to measure progress. Consider both qualitative and quantitative measures, depending on your project type. And get contact details from participants so you can follow up with them with a survey perhaps.

For example if you are running an educational type project, like a “how to bokashi” workshop, you could ask participants to rate before the workshop how knowledgeable/confident they are to be doing bokashi right now. After your education ask the same question again. Then you are able to measure and report that they got more/less confident due to attending your workshop. You could also include some questions on key education points to check they “got it”.

Surveys on the day are useful. Following up with participants to see if they have changed a behaviour (started shopping plastic free for example) or taken action (started to bokashi for example) six weeks after is best practice for behaviour change projects. Always count participants at events at a minimum.

For projects that are able to be quantified please estimate the volume of waste in meters cubed or litres of waste, or by weight.

The following will be used to assess applications:

1. Proposal meets funding criteria.
2. Projects that sit higher on the waste hierarchy, deal with larger volumes of waste, that are unique/showing leadership and that detail higher levels of in kind donations or other support for the project will be considered favourably.
3. Reducing waste to landfill or waste creation is a primary part of the project and there are clear and measurable objectives.
4. The proposal will be technically and financially feasible and does not create an unacceptable level of risk to Council.
5. The applicant (or group) must be able to demonstrate the skill set and capacity to deliver the project safely and responsibly.