The second phase of WRAP’s Waste Prevention Loan Fund was announced yesterday (12 June) at the annual CIWM conference. The size of the fund has increased by £500,000 to a total of £1.5 million and the range of projects that will be considered has been widened to include re-use, repair and material recovery initiatives.
“WRAP’s new financial support package to businesses aims to take advantage of the great creative and entrepreneurial spirit across England,” says Matthew Broadbent, Head of Financial Mechanisms at WRAP. “Finding smart ways to prevent waste arising in the first place and then re-use or repair what is created makes pure business sense. We know there are lots of creative ideas out there so we’re looking for opportunities to scale these up to really make a bigger difference, driving green growth further and faster.”
The Waste Prevention Loan Fund was originally launched in June 2011. It focused on helping organisations reduce waste at its source by being more efficient with their materials, specifically with electronics and white goods, textiles and furniture. Companies could apply for loans of between £20,000 and £100,000, for up to five years, if they were unable to find other commercial funding.
Phase two of the loan fund adds more categories for possible funding, slightly relaxes the selection criteria and increases the total size of the fund, to encourage more people to take advantage of the offer. All material streams will be considered, although preference is still given to the high impact electronic, textile and furniture groups.
According to WRAP, two new types of project will now also be considered for funding: “Innovative business model” projects which try to reduce product consumption, such as pay-per-use cars and mobile phones or collaborative consumption models (where people share resources), and “re-use, repair and recovery” proposals, such as incentives for customers to return old items.
The funding criteria have also been slightly tweaked. Loans are now available only between £100,000 and £1 million and there is also the opportunity to receive a £50,000 grant. WRAP suggest that the fund itself, and the business and marketing skills they can offer, could be used to leverage greater funds from commercial investors or restart a failed loan application.
The Waste Prevention Loan Fund is part of a series of WRAP funds launched last year. Other funds are available for anaerobic digestion, mixed plastics recycling and companies renting recycling machinery. So far no successful applications have been made to the Waste Prevention Loan Fund.
You can apply for the Waste Prevention Loan Fund on WRAP’s website.
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