The Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) will receive £9.5 million from the Welsh Government, a 40 per cent increase from its previous core funding, as it launches a three-year campaign, starting this month.

Dr Liz Goodwin, WRAP’s Chief Executive, outlining the initiatives in a speech at the WRAP Cymru Conference in Wales yesterday, stated that they will focus on three core areas: food waste, textiles and waste electronic and electrical equipment (WEEE).

Reducing waste, as well as recycling or reusing materials and increasing sustainability will be targeted through three campaigns:

• The Wales Food Waste Prevention Programme;
• The Wales Sustainable Products Programme; and
• The Wales Resource Management Programme

The Wales Food Waste Prevention Programme

Speaking at the event, Goodwin said that the food waste project will work “right across the food lifecycle, from farm to fork and beyond”, including the minimisation of carbon and water footprints as well as the wider environmental impacts of Welsh food and drink producers.

This programme aims to reduce food waste and save unnecessary spending on food through changing how the Welsh shop, cook and eat.

The end goal, Goodwin said, is for food redistribution to become the norm within Wales: “We will establish Wales as the UK food redistribution lead – in which food producers, suppliers, retailers, caterers and householders will work together to ensure any unwanted food goes to those who need it the most.”

The Wales Sustainable Products Programme

In developing the Wales Sustainable Products Programme, WRAP aims to help create a circular electrical and textiles economy in Wales, as well as helping Welsh consumers, businesses and public-sector organisations save money.

In her speech, Goodwin set out a series of initiatives to establish this change, including:

• inspiring manufacturers to rethink how they design and produce goods;
• supporting retailers to make it easier to return unwanted products;
• encouraging shoppers to make the most of what they buy; and
• enabling reprocessors to collect and recover high-value raw materials.

The Wales Resource Management Programme

This final scheme will work with organisations to help reuse goods, ensuring that “Welsh businesses, consumers and public-sector organisations get the best possible value out of our natural resources”.

Through encouraging reuse, WRAP hopes to keep products in use for longer and facilitate the redistribution of high-quality, low-cost reused products.

Goodwin said of Wales’s future in sustainability: “We believe that Wales has the potential to become the first truly circular economy… In doing so, we can together help create between 12,000 and 30,000 new Welsh jobs.”

She added: “For Wales, the circular economy is good for the environment, economy, and society as a whole, and that’s why the new programmes of work are so important.”

Read about WRAP Cymru and Wales’s highest yet recycling rates.