Capital project: Waste reduction and diversion

We fund capital projects for initiatives that divert at least 60% of municipal solid waste from your landfill, no matter how much you’re already diverting (i.e., 0-59%). If your municipality has already achieved the 60% target, your project must move you beyond 60%. If you are from a remote community, your diversion project must target a diversion rate of 15% over your current baseline. This funding helps Canadian cities and communities of all sizes reduce, reuse and recycle material that would otherwise enter the waste stream.

Capital projects involving thermal treatment are only eligible for funding if your municipality has already achieved a total diversion rate of at least 60% with reduction, reuse, recycling or biological processes. That diversion rate does not apply to thermal treatment capital projects in remote communities. If you are from a remote community, your capital project must target a diversion rate of 15% over your current baseline.

You may include multi-residential, institutional, commercial, and industrial waste in your capital project, and may include partnerships that could strengthen the business case of the capital project. Capital projects related to construction and expansion of landfills or those related solely to constructing transfer stations are not eligible.

Examples of what you might implement:

• Organics collection programs and processing facilities
• Reduction, reuse or recycling programs and infrastructure (e.g., eco-centres, zero-waste or circular economy initiatives) 
• Economic incentives to encourage diversion (e.g., pay-as-you-throw, targeted landfill fees)
• Waste management systems that increase the diversion of waste from landfills
• Thermal treatment processes (for municipalities that have already achieved a waste diversion rate of at least 60%)

Target

Divert at least 60% of municipal solid waste from your landfill, or move beyond the 60% mark if you have already achieved it. If you are from a remote community, achieve a diversion rate of 15% over your current baseline. 

What we’re looking to fund

FCM funds capital projects that demonstrate most of the following characteristics:

• Transformative potential: The project incorporates solutions (e.g., knowledge, practices, technologies) that are well beyond business-as-usual. The project:
  • is likely to result in significant performance improvements (e.g., improved levels of service, cost savings, energy efficiency, increased resiliency, environmental protection, improved human health)
  • is audacious in that it requires a municipality to take on uncertainty over known best practices to achieve greater environmental benefits
  • is designed to build the capacity of key stakeholders (e.g., municipal staff, elected officials, local trades)
  • has the potential to generate new knowledge for the sector
  • has a high likelihood of being replicated if successful

• Significant impacts: The project has the potential to generate significant measurable environmental results as well as economic and social benefits.
• Strong implementation framework: The project plan is robust and includes appropriate stakeholder engagement, planning, risk management, resourcing and monitoring.

How to apply