£165,000 waste prevention fund for community groups

£165,000 waste prevention fund for community groups

£165,000 waste prevention fund for community groups - Knowsley News

Local community groups involved in activities aimed at reducing household waste, encouraging recycling and preventing carbon emissions can apply for a share of the fund.

A share of £165,000 is up for grabs by community groups who are helping to make Knowsley a cleaner and greener place.

Community and voluntary groups, schools and not-for-profit organisations who are involved in activities aimed at reducing household waste, encouraging recycling and preventing carbon emissions can apply for a share of the fund. The projects will also have to demonstrate wider positive impacts on the environment, health and education.

The money is coming from the Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority and Veolia Community Fund 2022/23.

How much funding can my scheme get?

Successful applicants can be awarded up to £30,000 for schemes which operate across all six local authority areas across Merseyside and Halton, and between £1,000 and £8,000 for projects which work solely in one council area.

Bids must tackle one or more of the four priority household waste materials which have been identified by MRWA, namely food, plastics, textiles and furniture. An analysis of waste in the region highlighted that a greater amount of these materials could be re-used or recycled. Projects can also include other household waste materials, for example paper, card, metals.

What has the money been used for in the past?

Previous Community Fund projects have included local recycling guidebooks, cookery clubs to improve people’s diet and reduce food waste, restoring old furniture to sell for charity and refurbishing unwanted rugs for resale.

The impact of the 2020/21 fund saw 13 projects divert 291 tonnes of material from disposal, 19,915 people directly engaged, the participation of 12,125 volunteer hours, 85 events held, 451 training sessions take place, and a 541 tonne reduction in CO2 equivalent emissions.

One organisation to benefit from the Community Fund is charity Faiths for Change, which ran a series of pop-up boutique events in Northwood, Kirkby. The events gave residents the chance to bring along any unwanted clothes, books or toys they wanted to swap or give a new lease of life to – all for free.

How do I apply?

Interested groups can download the application form from the MRWA website www.merseysidewda.gov.uk. The deadline for submissions is 11.59pm on Sunday 20 March 2022. If groups aren’t sure whether their project is appropriate for consideration then they can submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) via email to MRWA at communityfund.2022-2023@merseysidewda.gov.uk before Sunday 27th February 2022.

Successful projects should receive the funding by mid May 2022 and will have ten months to deliver their schemes by March 2023.

Organisations interested in this year’s Community Fund can: