Funding incentive boost for Scottish businesses to reduce waste

An extra £100k has been added to a support fund that encourages Scottish small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to come up with environmental innovations to reduce waste and tackle greenhouse gas emissions.


Called the Waste Prevention Innovation fund, the support was launched by the government-financed organisation Zero Waste Scotland and is an addition to an earlier innovation fund of £240,000 designed to help Scotland meet its zero waste targets.

Applicants who wish to develop ideas in product, service and packaging design which will significantly impact on waste reduction, have until October 31 to apply, and grants will be awarded up to a maximum of £50,000.

This fund is running alongside the Recycling Innovation fund which is still open for applications until September 30th and has a value of approximately £45,000 still to award.

Projects that successfully secured earlier funding have also been announced.

The projects include schemes realised by companies such as Celtic Renewables who are developing a patented fermentation technology to produce an advanced biofuel that can be used as a replacement for petrol.

Another company, UWI Technology is market testing a smart label on selected food and drink products which will display the elapsed time from first opening of the product in an aim to reduce consumer food waste.

Forecasts suggest that future innovation and technology developments could be worth an additional £8.4bn to Scotland’s low-carbon industries by 2015 and create up to 100,000 jobs.

Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead said: “This innovation fund will support Scottish SMEs by helping them use their resources as efficiently as possible and reducing the environmental impact. The Scottish Government’s zero waste plan aims to reduce the amount of waste produced, ensure that more packaging and products can be recycled and contain as much recycled content as possible. This fund will help us build on the innovative approaches already being taken by Scottish businesses in this area.”

Conor McGlone

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