WRAP to support commercial recycling in Wales

And, the organisation has also announced that the recycling and reprocessing businesses it supports in Northern Ireland have increased their turnover by £5.9 million.

In Wales, under its Materials Action Programme (MAP), WRAP plans to offer up to 30% of the capital costs for anaerobic digestion (AD) facilities tackling food waste from the commercial sector – such as that from factories and ready meal manufacturers – and to help finance the development of new or existing reprocessing facilities for dealing with construction, demolition and excavation waste.

The Welsh minister for the environment, Jane Davidson, said: “This new funding programme is a good example of our determination to ensure that quantities of waste going to landfill are reduced, and that the economic benefits of reprocessing that waste back into a useful resource are available to Welsh businesses.

“WRAP has a well deserved reputation for running efficient and effective support schemes for the reprocessing sector, and I'm particularly pleased that they have developed a specifically Welsh solution for us,” she added.

MAP

In the wake of calls to focus on the issue of tackling food waste in Wales (see letsrecycle.com story), the fund – which will be managed by WRAP Cymru – will provide AD plants with grant funding to ensure that 60% of food waste processed is secured from the commercial sector, such as ready meal and drinks manufacturers.

For construction, demolition and excavation waste, funding is to be made available to create new recycling or reprocessing facilities or expand and improve existing ones, which also covers collection and mobile processing equipment.

At the same time, projects planning to install additional processing or separation equipment can also apply.

WRAP will hold seminars in North Wales (December 9) and South Wales (December 12) to assess the suitability of candidates and to ensure that the proposed projects could not go ahead without funding and that they are commercially viable in the medium to long term.

The funding will be available until March 2011 with applicants for the first round expected to have facilities operational by December 2010.

Turnover

In Northern Ireland, WRAP announced at a meeting of business and government representatives in Belfast that it has helped to advance recycling and reprocessing business in the province through grants and development of legal requirements for construction waste, increasing the turnover of the businesses it supports by £5.9 million.

Having been involved in the development of recycling collections in the country, WRAP supported the successful trial of food-waste collections for Newtownabbey borough council, which has since seen the service expand to 2,000 homes, and WRAP has also been involved in developing a similar scheme for 65,000 households in Belfast.

The organisation has also issued £425,000 in grants to local businesses as well as establishing legal requirements for mimimsation and recycling in the construction sector, which has seen companies save money through the use of recycled aggregates.

Dr Ian Garner, WRAP manager for Northern Ireland, said: “WRAP is proud to have helped grow the recycling economy in Northern Ireland. We have helped boost the quality and innovation of recycling sector businesses which will continue to be key players in building Northern Ireland's resource efficient economy.

“This improved environmental performance has helped its competitiveness in bidding for contracts throughout the UK and Ireland. We believe there is potential to achieve even more and for Northern Ireland to make an even greater impact in the UK's recycling and reprocessing sector,” he added.