Central government has announced the 10 winners of the first round of the Innovation in Waste Prevention (IWP) fund.

Funded by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) and launched by the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) in May of this year, the £800,000 fund offers business partnerships in England grants of between £5,000 and £50,000 to prevent wastage of the priority materials outlined in Defra’s Waste Prevention Programme for England: food; textiles; furniture and bulky material; electronic and electrical equipment; plastics; paper and board; construction and demolition waste; and healthcare and chemical waste.

The winners of the £330,000 round are:

• Action for Children, for the development of a new scrapstore for North Devon and Torridge;
• Changing Lives in Cheshire (CLiC), for establishing a RePaint project for Cheshire West run by CLiC, the Cheshire Furniture Re-use Forum, and Cheshire West & Chester Council;
• Community Action Dacorum, for the development of a repair shed in Hemel Hempstead for businesses and domestic users, providing repair services and training opportunities;
• Devon County Council, for the development of a reuse forum (which will establish community kits for clothes swaps, ‘give and take’ days and an online reuse directory) and to appoint a co-ordinator;
• Hampshire County Council, for the expansion of Hampshire Furniture Re-use Network's reuse and repair centre, which will include an education facility based on product sustainability and resource efficiency;
• Havering Council, for the establishment of electrical repair workshops and training events in collaboration with The Restart Project;
• LeicesterShire & Rutland Reuse Network CIC, for the appointment of a Reuse Coordinator and to purchase a stock management system as part of the wider implementation of the Reuse Plan for Leicestershire, Leicester City and Rutland;
• Tandridge District Council, for the introduction of a new district-wide kerbside collection of textiles, small domestic electrical items, batteries and printer cartridges for reuse;
• The Restart Project, for the development of a 'fixometer’ app to measure impacts of electrical repair workshops; and
• The Vine Project, for the establishment of pop-up shops that offer repair skills for household objects, textiles and electrical products in Mitchum, Surrey.

‘Incredibly excited to see what comes out of this project’

Announcing the winners this morning, Resource Minister Dan Rogerson said: “Preventing waste before it is even created not only protects the environment but also makes good business sense. That is why we are committed to helping people make the most of the materials that are available to them, creating a stronger economy and more sustainable society.

“We had an incredible response to the first round of the IWP Fund and the successful projects will take a range of exciting repair and renew projects to communities in England.”

Marcus Gover, Director at WRAP, added: “It’s clear to see from all the round one applications that there is a real appetite for communities to work together to prevent waste, which is hugely encouraging. This kind of collaboration and innovation is what’s needed if we’re to deliver growth and move towards the circular economy.”

One of the funding winners, James O’Brien, Interim Reuse Network Co-ordinator from the LeicesterShire & Rutland Reuse Network, said the group was “extremely pleased to have been awarded the IWP funding”, which will enable it to put in place “important foundational elements of our initiative”.

He added: “With this support, we can increase reuse across the area and provide a more sustainable future for our member organisations.”

Rogerson said that there was “still a lot more to be done and every sector has their role to play”, and as such was “incredibly excited to see what comes out of phase two of this project”.

The second phase, which was launched last month, includes a new, lower level of match funding, which aims to ‘make it easier for smaller projects to get off the ground’.

The second funding round will accept applications until 6 February 2015.

Find out more about the second phase of the Innovation in Waste Prevention Fund.