£165,000 fund launched to help community groups reduce, reuse and recycle
Community groups across the borough can access a share of £165,000 to help make Wirral a cleaner and greener place.
The funding, available from Merseyside Recycling & Waste Authority (MRWA) and Veolia Community Fund 2022/23, is for community and voluntary groups, schools and not-for-profit organisations, to help reduce household waste, encourage recycling and re-use and prevent carbon emissions.
Groups that apply will also have to demonstrate that their projects will have wider positive impacts on the environment, health and education and address one, or more, of the four priority household waste materials identified by MRWA – Food, Plastics, Textiles and Furniture.
Successful applicants can be awarded up to £30,000 for schemes which operate across the whole of Liverpool City Region or between £1000 and £8,000 for projects within Wirral.
Chairperson of Merseyside Recycling & Waste Authority (MRWA), Councillor Tony Concepcion, said:
We know that there are a lot of communities concerned about climate change and sustainable living. Giving groups the opportunity to get involved in looking after their environment can only bring benefits to all and can help us appreciate items as valuable resources rather than something which otherwise might be just thrown away.
"We've seen that previous projects have continued to deliver benefits beyond the first year, through their legacy and ongoing impact on behavioural change, and in many cases through new or continuing activities.
Previous Community Fund projects have included local recycling guidebooks, cookery clubs to improve people’s diet and reduce food waste, fruit and vegetable gleaning, restoring old furniture to sell for charity and refurbishing unwanted rugs for resale. In November last year one project held a mock COP26 climate change conference with school children from across Liverpool City Region to help highlight wasted clothes and textiles.
The impact of the 2020/21 fund in numbers:
- 19,915 people directly engaged
- 12,125 hours of volunteer participation
- 541 tonne reduction in CO2 equivalent emissions
- 451 training sessions take place
- 291 tonnes of material diverted from disposal
- 85 events held
- 13 projects
Interested groups can download the application form via the MRWA website www.merseysidewda.gov.uk.
The deadline for submissions is 11.59pm on Sunday 20th March 2022. If groups aren’t sure whether their project is appropriate for consideration, then they can submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) by emailing communityfund.2022-2023@merseysidewda.gov.uk before Sunday 27th February 2022.
Successful projects should receive the funding by mid May 2022 and will have 10 months to deliver their schemes by March 2023.
