UK non-profit recycling advocate WRAP (waste and resources action programme) has unveiled two new grants to fund capital infrastructure projects in England to drive up the recycling of plastic packaging and textiles.
The grants have been launched as part of the £18m (€20m) resource action fund, announced by the UK department of environment, food & rural affairs (Defra) earlier in May.
Worth £4.7m (€5.2m), the grants will be managed by WRAP and will be allocated to applicants in amounts varying from £200,000 to £1m (€224,000 to €1.1m).
The plastics grant will support pioneering new projects which will help to enable the recycling of plastic packaging such as pots, tubs and trays, and films and pouches and diverting it from landfill or incineration.
The focus of the textiles grant will be on supporting infrastructure that can better sort and process the large number of textiles and clothing and avoid them being discarded.
“There is a growing public alarm about the impact of plastic and textiles on our planet,” said WRAP director Peter Maddox on launching the funds at the Resourcing the Future conference in London on 12 June.
Also commenting, environment minister Thérèse Coffey encouraged businesses to apply for the “multi-million pound” grant.
“We are committed to going further and faster to reduce, reuse, recycle and cut waste,” she added.
Around 40% of all plastic produced in the UK is used in the packaging of goods. The UK generates around 2.4 million tonnes of plastic packaging waste per year.
The grant is in line with the UK Plastics Pact launched in 2018. The pact aims to bring together UK businesses across the plastics supply chain to tackle plastic pollution through changing the way products are used, made and disposed of.