- $592,000 awarded to 40+ recipients through Auckland Council’s Waste Minimisation and Innovation Fund
- Strong focus on schools, community-led initiatives and large innovation pilots
- Funding for companies tackling waste problems like e-waste, textiles and construction waste.
Over 40 schools, community organisations and businesses have been awarded a total of $592,000 from Auckland Council’s Waste Minimisation and Innovation Fund (WMIF), with an emphasis on schools and community-led projects.
A simpler funding process based on past applicants’ feedback has led to more school projects and small grants in the latest round, with over half of all awards being $5,000 or less, supporting hands-on waste reduction initiatives across Auckland.
Councillor Julie Fairey, Chair of the Community Committee, says community-led initiatives are essential to Auckland’s zero waste future.
“Getting to zero waste requires change to systems, and these grants allow communities to test new ways to deal with waste at the local level.
"Schools and local community groups are often well placed to support neighbourhood projects, creating new pathways for waste, allowing council to fund small-scale practical solutions that will help Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland achieve our goal of zero waste by 2040.”
Ten grants of between $20,000 and $50,000 are also being awarded, ensuring continued investment in larger innovation pilots and region wide initiatives that deliver scalable solutions and support Auckland’s goal of zero waste by 2040.
This year’s funding round supports a wide range of projects with new ways to reduce waste and reuse valuable materials. Highlights include companies tackling waste problems, like e-waste, textiles and construction waste:
- Echo Tech will run an E-Waste Education & Collection programme weekly in Auckland schools to increase e-waste awareness, reduction, and recovery, which will culminate in a school-led community e-Day to collect and process e-waste.
- Sustainable fashion brand NVVR.WORLD will set up a lab to enable designers to transform pre-consumer textile waste from local fashion businesses and schools into new materials and garments using specialist textile machinery and digital tools.
- Ara Education Charitable Trust will deliver a 12-month pilot to test and demonstrate the full-scale circular rebuild of a 1970s low-cost home using two donated houses - one for deconstructing and salvageable materials, and the other to rebuild with recovered materials.
School and locally led initiatives include interventions to support individual actions:
- Mairangi Bay School will install resource recovery stations into school classrooms to encourage and educate students to sort their waste.
- Sylvia Park School will purchase a full composting system, including a compost bin, compost caddies, scoops, wheelie bins and wheelbarrows to manage fruit waste produced through the school’s ’Fruit in Schools’ programme and daily lunches.
- Ann Langis Play Ltd is developing Noughty Parenting - playgroup activities that educate parents/whanau to reduce single-use nappies and sanitary products, and to learn how to make baby food and create baby toys.
The Waste Minimisation and Innovation Fund supports projects that reduce waste to landfill and is funded through the Ministry for the Environment’s waste disposal levy, which invests in waste reduction and resource recovery initiatives. Applications managed by Auckland Council were received in October 2025, with successful applicants notified in March.
A list of previously successful applicants can be found on the Auckland Council website.