Te Pūtea Whakamauru Para Waste Minimisation Fund

Any New Zealand-based legal entity can apply for funding. However, there are other eligibility criteria that your proposal must meet to be considered.

Read the gazetted criteria (Gazette website)

From 1 July 2025, the WMF is focussed on infrastructure projects that help divert organic waste from landfill. 

This includes projects that improve:

• sorting and separation of organic material
• resource recovery systems
• processing capabilities for organic waste. 

This new focus supports the WMF’s contribution to the second Emissions Reduction Plan, targeting a reduction of 1 million tonnes of CO₂-equivalent emissions by 2030.

We are currently only accepting proposals that focus on diverting organic waste from landfill. Depending on funding available, we may run a separate funding round for non-organic waste projects later this year.

Mixed-waste projects are eligible for funding, as long as the main focus is on organic waste. We’ll be looking closely at how much emissions reduction your project can deliver.

We are committed to exploring all opportunities to meet our emissions reduction targets. If you believe your proposal aligns with these priorities, we encourage you to get in touch.

• Kerbside food and green waste collection – for councils only.
• Projects that reduce commercial food waste.
• Facilities to process organic waste, like composting, anaerobic digestion, worm farming or insect farming.
• Solutions for treated timber waste, such as turning it into biofuel pellets or reprocessing it for reuse.
• New or upgraded resource recovery centres and transfer stations, to help separate materials better.
• Construction and demolition sorting facilities that recover timber and other organic materials.
• Timber processing facilities.
• Feasibility studies or business cases that support any of the above priorities.

• Ongoing business-as-usual costs, like regular operating expenses.
• Projects already funded by other Government agencies.
• Projects that have already started or finished.
• Projects that can self-fund or already have other funding sources.
• Replacing assets without increasing landfill diversion.
• Pure research or science projects without a clear commercial pathway.
• Projects outside of Aotearoa New Zealand.
• Administrative or fundraising costs, including preparing your application.
• Debt repayments.
• Buying land.
• In-kind contributions, such as volunteer time or facilities provided by your organisation, are not considered co-funding.

The minimum grant sizes are:

• $100,000 – for business cases, feasibility studies and pilots
• $250,000 – for all other project types

The WMF will fund a portion of your project. As a guideline:

• For commercial proposals, the WMF will generally contribute up to 40 per cent of the total cost.
• For proposals with a strong public good element, the WMF may contribute up to 50 per cent of the total cost.
• In exceptional cases where there are highly compelling public-good benefits, the WMF may contribute up to 75 per cent of the total cost.

Step 1 – Check your project eligibility and alignment

Read our gazetted criteria (Gazette website) to check your project is eligible.

Read the What is being funded section and ensure that your project aligns with the current investment priorities. 

Step 2 - Get in touch

Fill out our short enquiry form if you think your project is eligible and aligns with what is being funded.

The WMF Guide for Applicants includes information about the enquiry form as well as the application stage. Because the enquiry form is managed through our Funds Management System (FMS), our FMS User Guide will help to get you started.

Read the WMF Guide for Applicants.

Read the Fund Management System User Guide.

Once we receive your form, we will get in touch within three weeks to inform you of next steps.

Step 3 – Application stage

If invited to the application stage, your application will build on the information you provided in the enquiry form.

Once completed and submitted, we will assess your application. This process may take between three to five months to complete depending on the size, scope and complexity of the application.

Projects requesting more than $1 million in funding

For projects requesting more than $1 million in funding, a business case, emissions calculations and financial documentation will be required. 

These projects will require additional assessment steps including an independent panel review and approval by the Minister for the Environment.

Step 4 – Contracting stage

If your funding is approved, you will begin contracting. At the contracting stage, you will be required to submit a project plan and detailed budget. Your investment manager will provide guidelines to help you with this.

The contract project planning may be subject to external due diligence or a legal review depending on the size and complexity of your project. Successful completion of these steps will lead to signing the Deed of Funding.

The contracting stage may take between three to five months to complete. Once the deed is signed, your project is active. 

Deed of funding - example (PDF, 327KB)

Since 2010, there has been $211 million in grant funding to over 344 organisations for waste reduction initiatives.

Find information on these initiatives through our interactive dashboard. This is regularly updated with new projects as they are confirmed and announced.