CRED recycling fund may close after flood of bids

The RSWT, which manages the national lottery fund for community recyclers, has announced that it has now allocated more than 23 million – 70% of the funding available.

” Because of the popularity of the programme it is quite possible that we might not be able to accept any more grant applications by this summer. “
– Marc Lupson, RSWT
Set up in January 2003, the 36.5 million fund is scheduled to run until the end of 2007, overseeing the management of grant awards to small scale community-based recycling, re-use and composting schemes.

CRED has said it has so far helped establish 125 community projects throughout England, and estimates that these will help divert an extra 400,000 tonnes of household waste from landfill sites.

Warning
New grants applications are still being processed by CRED, but the programme managers have warned that the fund – which gives grants of between 50,000 and 300,000 – could run out of cash by this summer and they are advising community groups and organisations to submit their proposals as soon as possible to avoid any disappointment.

Grant teams manager Marc Lupson told letsrecyle.com: “We have been delighted at the success of the programme – it has received a lot of support and has attracted ideas for setting up some really first class recycling and reuse schemes.

“We certainly expect that we will have awarded all our grant funding by the end of this year – but because of the popularity of the programme it is quite possible that we might not be able to accept any more grant applications by this summer.

Advice
“Our advice to people who are planning to make ask for grant support for a community scheme is to press ahead and get their applications in as soon as possible. If they have any queries they should get in touch with us and we will be happy to give help and advice,” said Mr Lupson.

The lion’s share of funding has gone to re-use projects which have been awarded a total of 13,127,585 in grants; with 6,328,117 has been given to support recycling projects and a total of 3,575,416 allocated for composting schemes.

Regions
The North West has won the largest amount of funding so far, with more than 4.3 million in grants allocated to 23 projects in the region; with more than 3.9 million awarded to 17 projects in London and 16 projects in the South West receiving just over 3m in grants.

More than 2.8 million in grants has gone to 14 projects in the South East; 15 projects in Yorkshire and Humber region have been awarded more than 2.3 million and 11 projects in the West Midlands have received nearly 2.3 million.

In the Eastern region 11 projects have been awarded more than 1.7 million and almost 1.5 given to 10 projects in the North East; while the East Midlands region received the lowest share of grant with just 1.137 million awarded to eight projects.

Awards
Recent grant awards have included 63,330 for the Piccadilly Garden composting project in Lancaster and 186,384 for a collection and recycling project at Wednesbury in the West Midlands.

CRED estimates that some 1.7 million householders benefit from the range of recycling and composting schemes supported through its grant and programme manager Louise Owens said: “The organisations who have benefited from this fund are making a huge difference by reducing landfilled household waste and increasing awareness of recycling in their communities.”

For more information and an application pack for the CRED Programme, contact RSWT on 0870 0361000 or visit the CRED website .