More than $1 Million allocated in grants to tackle local litter

NSW Environment Protection Authority Executive Director Liesbet Spanjaard said all applicants in local communities across the state who applied for the two NSW Government litter grants, including tackling cigarette butts, were to be commended.

A total of $1.1 million – comprising $600,000 for Round 6 of the Community Litter Grants and $500,000 for the inaugural Cigarette Butt Litter Prevention Grants – will be provided to councils, community groups and organisations to implement litter prevention projects in their areas.

Ms Spanjaard said the Cigarette Butt Litter Prevention Grants were a new and exciting opportunity to fund projects that work with stakeholders to deliver local cigarette butt litter prevention projects and reduce litter.

“Cigarette butts are consistently the most littered item in NSW every year. I hope local communities can set a great example for innovative projects to help reduce the millions of butts littered each year and by doing so, clean up our environment.”

Ms Spanjaard said that previous litter prevention grant programs had seen some impressive results to date and was confident the successful applicants would achieve similar results.

“More than 200 projects have been funded so far under the litter prevention grant program with incredible results – some projects have recorded up to 80 per cent reduction in litter in their targeted hotspot,” Ms Spanjaard said.

“It is excellent to see grants awarded to a variety of groups and councils that will enable action to be taken to keep our suburbs clean.”

More information about the successful applicants and NSW EPA Litter Grants program is available at:

https://www.epa.nsw.gov.au/working-together/grants/litter-program/community-litter-grants and https://www.epa.nsw.gov.au/your-environment/litter-and-illegal-dumping/epa-work-prevent-litter/reducing-cigarette-butt-litter