The £800,000 fund, coordinated by the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP), had been set to run in three phases over two years to promote waste prevention and reuse projects in local communities.
It came as part of the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ Waste Prevention Programme for England in 2013, which also included a continuation of the WRAP-managed £1.5 million prevention loan fund for small and medium businesses (see letsrecycle.com story).
The initial round of funding, held between May and September 2014, saw 79 organisations apply for grants under the scheme.
A total of 10 organisations were successful, with ideas ranging from Action for Children’s new scrapstore in North Devon and Torridge, and the Restart Project’s ‘fixometer’ app to measure impacts of electrical repair workshops in London (see letsrecycle.com story).
A second round of funding, which closed in February 2015, saw six more entries gain funding, including Create UK’s plan to collect white goods from empty housing association properties in Merseyside.
It also featured a proposal from Keep Britain Tidy to support primary schools in setting up a pupil-run service for families to exchange outgrown children’s clothing in East London.
Third round
However, Defra has now ruled out proceeding with the third and final round of funding, taking into account that WRAP is already ‘learning so much’ from the 16 successful projects.
A statement from WRAP explained the decision to scrap the third funding round. It said: “After careful consideration, Defra has decided not to proceed with Round 3 of the Fund. The decision takes into account the fact that we are learning so much from the 16 exciting projects underway from previous Rounds; and that a further Round, at this stage, would be unlikely to generate many additional ‘new to the world’ ideas for preventing waste.
“Some of the organisations, which received funding, are now promoting their projects and WRAP will publish the outcomes in 2016. They will be added to our suite of online tools and guidance, including the Waste Prevention Hub and associated ‘partnerships are key to success’ material launched earlier this year.”
Commenting on the decision, Craig Anderson, chief executive of the Furniture Reuse Network, said the association was ‘sorry to hear’ the Fund had been pulled.
Innovation
He added: “FRN is sorry to hear that the Innovation in Waste Prevention Fund is not set to continue and that Defra believes that there is no chance of finding “new to the world” innovation out there.
“Crucial to any innovation is having preliminary discussion and debate with key strategic stakeholders, and FRN is happy to work with Defra in future if they wish to review what such a fund could do with some ambition and some well-thought out practical interventions.”
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