The EMR Reload Fund comes from Packaging Export Recovery Notes (PERNs) issued by EMR. The fund was announced today at the Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee (LARAC) conference in Telford.
The fund will provide 140,000 over a three-year period for larger projects and 20,000 for smaller projects. The new and existing schemes will be eligible for funding and a range of projects will be considered, including kerbside collection programmes, recycling banks, material recycling facilities and household recycling centres.
EMR managing director Colin Iles said: “The fund will provide the resources required to pull more used packaging out of the waste stream, raise overall recycling rates and meet packaging waste recovery targets.”
EMR claims the EMR Reload Fund is believed to be the largest cash incentive from the private sector. Mr Iles said local authorities' participation is important for EMR and other recyclers to meet targets set out by the Packaging Directive.
He explained: “EMR invests the revenue generated through the issue of Packaging Export Recovery Notes into a wide variety of projects that support the collection and recycling infrastructure and increase its capacity. We’re absolutely committed to extracting more metal packaging from the household waste stream because this helps us meet the packaging waste directive targets, which requires an additional 70,000 tonnes of metal packaging to be recycled by 2008. We see the Reload Fund initiative as a major plank in this strategy and encourage all eligible local authorities to enter.”
Local authorities have been invited to submit business plans for up to three years. The application deadline is January 30, 2004. For larger schemes category, which must be partially or wholly devoted to metal packaging, the Reload Fund will award up to 80,000 of funding in the first year, with an additional 50% of revenue support in the second year and a further 25% in the third year.
Applications for funding will be judged by a panel that includes Essex Councillor Kay Twitchen and John Enright, head of the Local Authority Support Unit recently established by the Government’s Waste Implementation Programme.
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