The NSW Government will offer up to $1 million for councils, catchment groups and other key stakeholders to deliver catchment-based approaches to reduce the flow of litter into NSW waterways.

The program supports the litter targets outlined in the NSW Waste and Sustainable Materials Strategy 2041 (WASM). This program aims to facilitate action and inspire leadership in litter prevention to ensure a healthy and thriving environment for the future.

Funding is available to stakeholders delivering Stream 3 initiatives as part of the NSW Litter Prevention Grants Program.

Streets to Sea is a catchment-based approach to litter prevention, focused on reducing flows of litter from the terrestrial environment (e.g., streets as well as parks, plazas and other littered places) into the marine environment (e.g., waterways like estuaries, rivers, creeks, drainage channels and shorelines). The whole journey is in consideration to intervene and reduce the flow of litter -from streets to sea and all the potential points between.

Funding

A total pool of $5 million is available for Streets to Sea initiatives. Funding of up to $1 million is available per applicant.

It is expected that those applying for larger amounts of funding (i.e., towards the upper end of the $1 million funding scale) would be part of a catchment-wide collaboration of multiple organisations and deliver large-scale reductions in litter flows. Grants towards the lower end of the funding scale might cover initiatives for sub-catchments within larger catchment areas, or target particular land uses or litter types.

This is a new program that was introduced in the NSW Litter Prevention Strategy 2022-2030.

What will be funded?

Up to $1 million is available for applicants who have completed a Streets to Sea catchment-based litter management plan, in accordance with the steps below, and who have endorsement that commits them to implementing the program of work outlined in that plan.

Streets to Sea supports initiatives that do the following:

• establish and refine an approach for integrating litter prevention with catchment management
• implement the approach in specified catchments
• deliver quantified reductions in litter flows.

Streets to Sea catchment litter plans may include a range of interventions that help to reduce flows of litter, such as the following:

• improved cleaning methods (e.g., litter pick up, street sweeping, stormwater device maintenance)
• new cleaning equipment, such as street sweepers
• new or upgraded infrastructure, such as litter bins or stormwater quality improvement devices (SQIDs).
• targeted regulation of public and private land to reduce litter escaping into stormwater
• improvements to the monitoring program, including integration of information technology with infrastructure to increase the efficiency of data insights (e.g., smart bins).

Eligbility

An applicant for Streets to Sea funding must be an existing recipient of a Stream 3 Own it and Act (OIAA) Litter Prevention strategic implementation grant and be implementing their roadmap.

Applications must present a clear, well-substantiated business case via the steps set out below, for a catchment approach to achieving measurable reductions in litter.

• Email: litter.prevention@epa.nsw.gov.au