UK Circular Plastics Flagship Projects Competition

Scope and aim of the Competition

The overall aim of the programme is to support the delivery of the Government’s target of achieving zero avoidable plastic waste by end of 2042 and the objectives of The UK Plastics Pact. These are (by 2025): 

• 100% of plastic packaging to be reusable, recyclable or compostable;
• 70% of plastic packaging effectively recycled or composted;
• Take actions to eliminate problematic or unnecessary single-use packaging items through redesign, innovation or alternative (reuse) delivery models; 
• A minimum of 30% average recycled content across all plastic packaging.

The grant funds will support new pioneering industry led collaborative projects, focussed on unlocking the most critical, short-term barriers to improving plastics circularity, finding new innovative solutions and interventions that will remove or overcome these barriers.  

Proposed interventions must be new and innovative i.e. they have not been tried or tested before within the UK.

The short-term challenges to plastic circularity are:

• Cutting the total volume of plastic waste arising from the UK;
• Significantly improving the rate of UK plastic recycling;
• Cutting levels of confusion amongst UK citizens; and
• Reducing the amount of plastic from the UK ending up in the world’s oceans.

Who can apply?

All applications must be industry led and should include collaboration with other organisations. The appointed lead applicant must be from industry and must be a business or organisation that is currently dealing with, or planning to operate, in a plastic supply chain. (i.e. manufacturers, retailers, distributers, resource management companies etc).  

Project proposals must include a collaboration with at least one other organisation. Other organisations may include business, government, public sector, and the research and innovation community.

The programme will award grants between £100,000 to £500,000 (both capital and revenue expenditure). There is a requirement for grant recipients to demonstrate commitment to the project by contributing a minimum of 50% match-funding. Uplift grant allowances are available for those applicants and projects that meet specific uplift grant criteria.  This means that these applicants would require a reduced level of match-funding. Further information is available within the programme guidance documents.

Application process and timing

Due to the anticipated high volume of interested in this competition, we have designed the programme to be delivered in two stages.  Stage 1: Outline Proposal. Stage 2: Full Application.

For further information about this fund and process on how to apply, please register your details below. Following your registration, you shall receive an email with access to download programme documentation.