Roseanna Cunningham announces £8.4m fund to boost recycling

Rubbish collection - image credit: Fotolia

Projects aiming to boost recycling will receive a share of £8.4m in new Scottish Government funding, Roseanna Cunningham has announced.

Speaking at the Scottish Resources Conference, the Environment Secretary announced plans to provide around £4.2m to help 17 small to medium sized businesses develop new products.

The funding, which will improve efficiency in re-using whisky by-products, waste plastic and household furniture, will be administered by Zero Waste Scotland through the Circular Economy Investment Fund.

Iain Gulland, chief executive of Zero Waste Scotland, welcomed the funding, saying “These new design and business ideas are going to be crucial to changing the way we make and do things. Scotland has the potential to lead the way in this area and I’m excited to see these new businesses develop.”

A further £4.2m in funding will be provided to local authorities which signed up to the Scottish Household Recycling Charter to help them move towards more effective recycling schemes.

Cunningham said: “While we have made steady progress on recycling with the amount of household waste recycled in 2016 reaching 45.2 per cent we want to see the pace of these improvements increase. Our investment will make it easier for households and businesses to put their things in the right bin by removing some of the confusion of different systems and working towards a national recycling system.

“As our need to tackle climate change becomes ever more urgent it is crucial that we invest in keeping materials in circulation for as long as possible. Our funding will also make it possible for SMEs to reuse food and drink and textiles and repurpose them into new products which will create jobs and reduce emissions.

“This investment, on top of our Programme for Government commitments of introducing a deposit return scheme and looking at ways of tackling our unnecessary throwaway culture will help Scotland become a cleaner and greener country.”