The Scottish Recycling Fund, which is designed to help businesses develop green infrastructure proposals, was announced by Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead at the Safeguarding Scotlands Resources conference in Edinburgh yesterday (February 20).
The fund will make loans available to organisations interested in developing capacity for the sorting, repair and reprocessing of waste materials including plastics, tyres, textiles, glass, food waste, WEEE and plasterboard in Scotland.
The Scottish Government hopes that through improved infrastructure, waste will be transformed into high value materials while also cutting carbon emissions.
The initiative is an expansion of the existing Scottish Plastics Loan Fund, established in 2012, and will be carried by Zero Waste Scotland in partnership with the Scottish Investment Bank.
Announcing the recycling fund, Mr Lochhead said: The Scottish Government is backing the industries of the future by making this 3.8 million available to those interested in developing our waste reprocessing industry. By increasing our capacity to deal with this waste here in Scotland, well be less exposed to volatile overseas markets, creating more of the useful raw materials that our business sector requires.
Realising the value in our waste materials like plastics, textiles and glass will make our economy more circular, while reducing our carbon emissions. Id strongly encourage any organisations with innovative ideas on waste to find out how this funding can benefit them, making Scotland greener, cleaner and more affluent in the process.
Capacity
Iain Gulland, director of Zero Waste Scotland, added: I am delighted to welcome the launch of the Scottish Recycling Fund, which is all about developing the capacity for better resource efficiency in Scotland.
This is an opportunity for businesses which have workable ideas but lack the capital, to get access to finance to help them realise their plans. The fund also provides an opportunity for Scotland to further develop industries in reuse, repair, reprocessing, remanufacture.
And, commenting on the partnership, head of the Scottish Investment Bank Kerry Sharp said: The Scottish Recycling Fund offers Scottish businesses the opportunity to access the finance needed to invest in new infrastructure that will help them not only achieve sustainable business growth through recycling, but will deliver significant environmental benefits for Scotland.
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We work with hundreds of businesses each year to help them tap into the finance needed to grow, and are pleased to partner with Zero Waste Scotland to deliver this exciting new fund for innovative and ambitious Scottish businesses with growth potential.
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