More than $40,000 in Tauranga City Council waste minimisation grants have helped five community organisations reduce the amount of waste that gets to landfill.
This year's successful Resource Wise Community Fund applicants will use the grants for projects including food rescue, home worm farming, education workshops and event waste stations.
Environment Committee chair Steve Morris said the funded projects showed how small changes could make a big difference to the amount of waste the city produced.
Morris said the idea of the fund was to support the community in finding new ways to help reduce waste and encourage others to recognise that "disposal should only be a last resort".
"We had a huge response to our call for funding applications and narrowing them down to five wasn't easy because of the outstanding quality of the projects on offer," he said.
"We're extremely lucky in Tauranga to have such passionate and motivated community groups, and people who are committed to making a difference to our city."
The Resource Wise Community Fund provides grants of up to $20,000 to individuals, community groups, businesses, iwi/Māori organisations and education providers who want to deliver waste minimisation projects within Tauranga.
The next Resource Wise Community Fund round will open later this year and close in May 2019.
For more information, email sustainability.waste@tauranga.govt.nz.
The projects supported in this year's grants round were:
•a project to undertake 'food rescue' and donate it to those in need, delivered by Good Neighbour
•education workshops to reduce single-use plastic run by Maungaarangi Kindergarten and Whanau Centre
•a chicken coop for Papamoa Playcentre to divert organic waste from landfill and educate whanau and tamariki
•innovative event waste stations delivered by Waste Wizards
•leasing worm farms to households and businesses by Why Waste.
