Defra names recipients of Household Reward fund

The Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has named the successful applicants of its Household Reward and Recognition scheme. The scheme, which was first announced in June 2011 in the English Waste Review, is designed to help organisations reward people for positive recycling and reuse behaviour.

Rewards could include vouchers, donations to charities or discounts on goods or services. Recognition may include personalised feedback on individual household recycling rates or information on how the item donated for reuse had benefitted the local community.

Overall the sixteen projects chosen for funding have a good geographical spread covering a range of councils and organisations. These include: Housing21, a non-profit care provider for older people which works with 240 local authorities nationwide, Preen CIC, a Bedfordshire-based company that collects and sells reused furniture to disadvantaged people, and the National Union of Students.

In a departmental update published this month, Defra said: The funding round for 2011/12 is now complete and has been very successful, with 70 applications having been made and, following a robust sifting exercise, 16 projects identified for funding.

Some of the schemes will, by necessity, be innovative and go beyond the tried and tested, but we firmly believe that this will help local authorities and communities to develop solutions that work for them. We are very keen to learn lessons from the schemes we are funding and that these will be shared with other organisations.

Defra wants to ensure that the lessons learned from these schemes are shared with other organisations and says that further funding may be available for the 2012/13 and 2013/14 financial years.

WLWA

The West London Waste Authority (WLWA) which handles waste on behalf of the seven West London boroughs of Brent, Ealing, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow and Richmond upon Thames – is set to receive the most funding, amounting to 133,532 over a two year period. The Authority is planning to run a trial in Brent and Richmond in April 2012 in which it will offer residents financial rewards if they reuse old furniture, buy clothes from charity shops and use repair services. Residents will be encouraged to sign up for a reward card, which can be used in participating businesses or charities or allow residents to make donations to selected community groups. If successful the scheme will be rolled out across the whole of the WLWA (see letsrecycle.com story).

Other projects

Other organisations to receive significant amounts of funding include Bolton council which has won 110,000 in funding over the two-year period. The council plans to introduce a scheme in which householders recycling efforts are recognised via text and email.

Waste Aware North East (WANE) will meanwhile receive 93,621, helping it to roll-out a prize draw scheme in which residents, once registered to participate, receive stickers to place on specific items of recycling entering them into the prize draw.

Other notable projects include Birmingham city councils which is an extension to an existing scheme (see letsrecycle.com story) offering Nectar points for residents who recycle paper and card.

Tackling the problem of limited recycling services offered to flats, Aire Valley Recycling, a not-for-profit recycling company which provides recycling services to households and businesses in West Yorkshire, is also to receive money to help set up a community recycling group providing services for such properties Bradford.

For a full list of successful applicants and the funding they will receive see below.