Community recycling fund winds down after 33m paid out

The Community Recycling and Economic Development (CRED) programme has handed out lottery money to 202 projects around England since January 2003.

” The whole of the community sector has an important role to play in helping divert waste from landfill. “
– Barrie Billinghay, CRED programme
A new raft of funding programmes will replace CRED and the New Opportunities Fund, both part of the Big Lottery Fund, from this year until 2009.

A spokeswoman for the Big Lottery Fund told letsrecycle.com there would be money available for community recycling projects in the new wave of lottery funding programmes.

She explained: “We are launching a number of different funding programmes, some of which are open already, with money going towards improving communities, which might include the funding of recycling projects that benefit the community.”

More information on the new funding programmes is available at the Big Lottery fund Website.

CRED
Some 125 re-use projects, 44 recycling projects and 33 composting projects received support from the CRED programme, which was managed on behalf of the Big Lottery Fund by the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts.

The CRED funding will see re-use, recycling and composting work continuing until December 2007, with two million more households taking part in recycling schemes thanks to CRED-funded groups.

Fund organisers estimate that 386,398 tonnes of material will be diverted from landfill under the CRED programme.

Barrie Billinghay, CRED Programme manager, said: “The UK faces an uphill task to meet EU recycling targets and the whole of the community sector has an important role to play in helping divert waste from landfill – those organisations that have benefited from this fund are making a huge difference in their local communities.”