The announcement of the extra cash for WRAP was contained in the government’s White Paper on enterprise, skills and innovation which was unveiled yesterday.
The funding did not feature in the summary detail of the white paper which includes a new regional policy and university innovation centres. Instead it was included within a section on waste where the DTI emphasised the work of WRAP in developing new markets for recycled materials and the promotion of technologies and processes which reduce waste.
The DTI said that WRAP’s programme will support investment on a much larger scale “in novel methods for waste minimisation, reuse and recycling and to develop new markets”. We will also explore the scope for further year on year increases in funding.
About turn
Giving WRAP further funds is seen as something of an about turn on the part of the DTI which initially had some reservations about the idea for WRAP which came from the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions. Before yesterday's announcement WRAP has 1.5 million of funds for the current financial year, 8.45m for 2001/2002, and 10.8m for the next two years.
In a related development, the DTI said it will launch a Performance and Innovation Unit study of the longer term issues concerned with resource productivity and renewables, and develop specific strategies with the Regional Development Agencies to support the growth of environmental industry clusters across the country.
Further details about WRAP are available at the WRAP website.
The DTI document can be seen at the DTI White Paper.
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