Zero plastic waste initiative

Overview

The Zero Plastic Waste Initiative aims to effect change across the plastics lifecycle to increase waste collection, improve value recovery, and prevent and remove plastic pollution. It supports projects that use innovative approaches leading to measurable, positive impacts to reduce plastic waste and pollution in Canada.

This initiative is no longer accepting applications.

Objective

Projects must improve the understanding, mitigation or remediation of plastic waste and pollution in Canada. They must clearly demonstrate activities that are measurable and will contribute to the implementation of Canada’s zero plastic waste vision. This includes our commitments under the Ocean Plastics Charter and Canada-wide Strategy on Zero Plastic Waste.

Eligible applicants

Eligible groups include:

• domestic or international not-for-profit organizations such as charitable and volunteer organizations, professional associations and non-governmental organizations
• domestic or international Indigenous organizations, governments, individuals, boards, commissions, communities, associations and authorities such as:
  • Indigenous not-for-profit organizations
  • District councils, Chiefs councils and Tribal councils
  • Indigenous research, academic and educational institutions
  • Indigenous for-profit organizations
• domestic or international research, academic and educational institutions
• domestic or international for-profit organizations such as small businesses with less than 500 employees, companies, corporations, industry associations and agricultural organizations
• local organizations such as community associations and groups, seniors’ and youth groups and service clubs
• provincial, territorial, municipal and local governments and their agencies.

Geographic location

All projects must take place in Canada. We will strive for geographical representation across Canada.

Eligible projects

All projects must clearly demonstrate activities that will help to capture and remove plastic pollution or prevent plastic waste from entering the environment. They must reflect at least one of the following priority areas:

• deploying and evaluating innovative solutions to capture and remove plastic pollution throughout the environment, including freshwater, marine and terrestrial environments
• targeting plastic leakage points and problematic / commonly littered items to decrease the release of plastic pollution
• capacity building through advancing citizen science initiatives related to the lifecycle of plastics, or plastic pollution and its removal

Ineligible projects include:

• citizen shoreline clean-ups
• projects specifically targeting fishing gear including removal or innovative design or the design, recovery and recycling of boats
• projects solely focused on education and awareness

Funding available

Projects are eligible for funding up to a maximum of $250,000 over its full duration, and must have a minimum ask of at least $25,000. There are no matching funding requirements but applicants are encouraged to secure project support through partner funds.  This current request for proposals is for projects that will begin on or after April 1, 2020 and completed no later than March 31, 2022.

Reporting

Projects must result in the prevention or reduction of plastic waste and pollution in Canada. Proponents will report on key project targets and one or more of the following indicators:

• kilograms of plastic litter diverted (captured or removed) from the environment
• number of partners or organizations participating / contributing to the project
• number of participants or Canadians reached
• number of best practices or tools developed leading to plastic pollution prevention / reduction
• number of tools developed / adopted to assess plastic pollution
• number of citizen science initiatives developed / implemented
• total number of sites at which data were collected

Related links

• Draft Science Assessment of Plastic Pollution
• Towards zero plastic waste
• Ocean Plastics Charter
• Canada-wide Strategy on Zero Plastic Waste
• Canada-wide Action Plan on Zero Plastic Waste Phase 1

Contact us

Zero Plastic Waste Initiative
351 Boulevard Saint-Joseph
Gatineau, QC K1A 0H3

Email: ec.plastiques-plastics.ec@canada.ca