The south-west branch of food redistribution charity FareShare and reuse and repair charity CREATE UK Ltd are amongst the grant winners of the Innovation in Waste Prevention Fund.
The second funding round, financed by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) and launched by the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) in November 2014, offered 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; healthcare and chemicals.
The fund aims to generate more action to prevent waste at a local level.
WRAP reportedly received 66 applications for this round and said that the selection process had been ‘particularly tough’ as it centred on ‘looking for high-levels of innovation, and new approaches’.
Six organisations based in England have now been chosen to receive grants. They were selected for their project ideas that ‘look at increasing reuse from a new angle’.
They are:
- Bicester Green (Oxfordshire)
This reuse project will focus specifically on home moving by aiming to get household goods moving through a circular, rather than linear, path of use, thus ‘bringing resource efficiency, social and economic benefits to locals’.
- Create UK Ltd (Merseyside)
This project will collect white goods such as fridges from empty housing association properties, and refurbish and resell them to new tenants at ‘affordable prices’ with a six month warranty. The project will provide training placements and wider social benefits, while ‘closing the loop’ for white goods.
- Fareshare South West (Somerset)
This project will redistribute edible food from events in the South West, such as Glastonbury, and develop a tool kit for use by other organizations wanting to redistribute food from events and festivals.
- Garage Sale Trail Foundation (throughout England)
This project will support communities – including householders, community centres and schools – to hold 'garage sales' on the same day across various towns.
- Keep Britain Tidy (London)
This project will support primary schools to set up pupil-run (Re) Love Our Stuff shops in East London as an ‘accessible and affordable’ way for families to exchange outgrown children’s clothing.
- Re-considered Ltd (Bradford)
This project will use surplus fruit and vegetables from Bradford wholesale market and local growers to create a range of preserves designed around seasonality, local cultures and flavour. It will also provide community cookery lessons and workshops.
‘Truly innovative ideas that can help local communities to prevent waste’
Speaking of the winners this morning, Linda Crichton, Head of Programme for Resource Management at WRAP, stated: “We were delighted to receive 66 applications for this round and are very appreciative of the hard work and time taken to apply. Selecting the winning projects has been particularly tough as we were looking for high levels of innovation and new approaches.
“The successful applicants, many of whom offer fairly traditional reuse activities as their core service, have all come up with exciting project ideas that look at increasing reuse from a new angle. For example, Bicester Green is an established furniture reuse organisation but is looking specifically at increasing the amount diverted to reuse from people moving house in one of the fastest growing towns in Oxfordshire.”
Resource Management Minister Rory Stewart welcomed the announcement at his first official address to the industry this morning (24 June), when he delivered the opening keynote address at the Resourcing the Future 2015 Conference, a joint event hosted by the Environmental Services Association (ESA), the Resource Association, and the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM).
In his speech, he stated: “Ranging from an initiative to help primary schools set up pupil-run clothing exchange shops to a project aiming to redistribute food from events in the South West, including Glastonbury, [these are] truly innovative ideas that can help local communities to prevent waste.”
WRAP has stated that it will report on the progress of the six winners, as well as the 10 winners of the first round of funding, ‘over the coming year’.
Details of the third funding round will be announced ‘later this summer’.
Find out more about the Innovation in Waste Prevention Fund.
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