A £3.8 million fund for waste sorting, repair and recycling projects launched by the Scottish Government is now open.
The Scottish Recycling Fund, which is designed to help businesses develop green infrastructure proposals, was announced by Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead at the recent ‘Safeguarding Scotland’s Resources’ conference in Edinburgh.
The fund will make loans available to organisations interested in developing capacity for the sorting, repair and reprocessing of waste materials including plastics, tyres, textiles, glass, food waste, WEEE and plasterboard in Scotland.
The Scottish Government hopes that through improved infrastructure, waste will be ‘transformed’ into high value materials – while also cutting carbon emissions.
The initiative is an expansion of the existing Scottish Plastics Loan Fund, established in 2012, and will be carried by Zero Waste Scotland in partnership with the Scottish Investment Bank.
Announcing the recycling fund, Mr Lochhead said: “The Scottish Government is backing the industries of the future by making this £3.8 million available to those interested in developing our waste reprocessing industry. By increasing our capacity to deal with this waste here in Scotland, we’ll be less exposed to volatile overseas markets, creating more of the useful raw materials that our business sector requires.
“Realising the value in our waste materials like plastics, textiles and glass will make our economy more circular, while reducing our carbon emissions.”
Commenting on the partnership, head of the Scottish Investment Bank Kerry Sharp said: “The Scottish Recycling Fund offers Scottish businesses the opportunity to access the finance needed to invest in new infrastructure that will help them not only achieve sustainable business growth through recycling, but will deliver significant environmental benefits for Scotland.