Funding Support Scheme Launched for Recycling Service Providers

Editor's notes:

¹ WRAP can provide organisations with up to £67,000 excluding VAT (equivalent to €100,000), however, in exceptional circumstances, and where a full justification is provided, a higher grant amount may be considered. The support provided constitutes state aid, as de minimis aid, and organisations are only allowed to receive approximately £134,000 (€200,000) of this aid over a three year period. Applicants will be required to declare previous de minimis funding as part of their application. See www.wrap.org.uk/smefunding for more information on de minimis funding.

² The funding support will be available to develop and provide recycling services for SMEs and these could include:

• multi material collection services;
• paper and cardboard collection services for urban/city centre SMEs, primarily offices and retail;
• glass collection services for SMEs in the hospitality sector;
• collections of food waste from hospitality and retail businesses and smaller food processors;
• collections from industrial estates, business parks and multiple occupancy buildings; and
• recycling services for SMEs in the construction, demolition and refurbishment sector.

Services should be primarily provided to SMEs, however research has shown that the efficiency and financial sustainability of operating collection services can be improved if collections are made from a combination of SMEs and non SMEs. Therefore, collections from a mix of business sizes will be allowed, as long as at least 80% of the participants of a funded service are SMEs.  SMEs are defined as a business employing between one and 250 people.

Food waste collected can be delivered to either suitably licensed (ABPR approved) in-vessel composting or AD facilities.

³ Reasons SMEs find it hard to recycle include: relatively low volumes of waste to collect commercially; lack of internal resources to manage/capacity to establish a service; difficulty to find financial incentive or benefit to recycle; lack of space to store materials for recycling; and lack of service provision. (Source: WRAP)

WRAP

1. WRAP works in partnership to encourage and enable businesses and consumers to be more efficient in their use of materials and recycle more things more often.  This helps to minimise landfill, reduce carbon emissions and improve our environment.
2. Established as a not-for-profit company in 2000, WRAP is backed by Government funding from Defra and the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
3. Working in seven key areas (Construction, Retail, Manufacturing, Organics, Business Growth, Behavioural Change, and Local Authority Support), WRAP’s work focuses on market development and support to drive forward recycling and materials resource efficiency within these sectors, as well as wider communications and awareness activities including the multi-media national Recycle Now campaign for England.
4. More information on all of WRAP’s programmes can be found at www.wrap.org.uk