Resource Use

£115k waste prevention fund opened up to Merseyside community groups

Funding of £115,000 has been made available for Merseyside and Halton community and voluntary groups, schools and not-for-profit organisations to help them reduce household waste, and encourage recycling and reuse.

The money is from the Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority (MRWA) and Veolia Community Fund 2017/18, which has been running annually since 2006.

Previous projects have included the refurbishing and selling of unwanted bikes at affordable prices, as well as teaching people about repair and maintenance, providing cookery courses that focused on reducing food waste, and delivering workshops on the revitalising of unwanted furniture and textiles.

£115k waste prevention fund opened up to Merseyside community groups
Knowsley’s Centre 63 has refurbished bikes for residents to use.
There were also projects training homeless people with the skills to design and make furniture and household accessories from waste, and the redistribution of unwanted materials from student accommodation at the end of the academic year.

The 2015/16 fund saw 10 projects deliver 71 full-time-equivalent jobs, participation by 253 volunteers, with 680 tonnes of waste material diverted from landfill and £68,000 of equivalent landfill costs avoided.

Successful applicants to the fund can be awarded up to £25,000 for schemes that operate across the region of Merseyside and Halton, and £8,000 for projects that work solely at local authority level. Projects will have 11 months to deliver their schemes and will be expected to get started in May.

‘Benefits to all’

Jeane Lowe, Chief Executive Officer at Knowsley’s Centre 63, an organisation supporting young people that benefitted from the fund last year, commented: “The community fund has been pivotal in enabling ‘Bike Back 63’ to take in unwanted bikes from the Knowsley community and refurbish them for local residents to reuse.

“This support has also enabled us to up-skill young people who are NEET (not in employment, education or training) and isolated older adults to become bike mechanics and repair old unwanted bikes which are donated back into the community. We have also delivered a popular earn-a-bike scheme, bike loan scheme and taught over 150 children and young people how to ride a bike and simple bike maintenance techniques.”

Commenting on the new funds available, Chairperson of MRWA, Councillor Graham Morgan, said: “We’ve made this money available for new and existing projects which can have an impact on their local community and make Merseyside and Halton a cleaner and greener place for us all to live and work.

“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.”

More information about the MRWA and Veolia Community Fund 2017/18 can be found on the MWDA’s website.

Related Articles