The Andrews Labor Government is supporting the commercial and industrial sector to develop innovative solutions to avoid, reduce and reuse food and plastic waste.

The Metropolitan Waste and Resource Recovery Group has provided Polyfoam Australia with a $10,000 grant to develop a machine to produce moulding products from 100 per cent scrap polystyrene.

Polyfoam Australia is one of six organisations sharing in $88,000 to support project trials ranging from research into using recycled plastic in road bases, creating manufacturing techniques to convert recycled PVC banners into roof tiles, and rescuing food from Melbourne’s major events.

Research commissioned in 2017 found that food and plastics waste represent two of the three highest volume waste streams in the commercial and industrial industry.

Recovering food waste is a critical focus area for the Victorian Government due to its contributions to greenhouse gas emissions when it breaks down in landfill, as well as the opportunity it presents to feed people in need, or generate energy and compost.

Plastic breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces over time and pollutes waterways, lakes and oceans – contributing to litter and posing a significant hazard to our marine life.

The Victorian Government has invested record funding of more than $100 million over the last four years to address waste and resource recovery issues.

The waste and resource recovery industry is important to the Victorian economy. It has an annual turnover of $4 billion, provides 12,000 full-time equivalent jobs and involves more than 590 businesses.