Poots rethinking waste

The latest recipients of grants from Northern Ireland’s Rethink Waste Fund were recently announced by Environment Minister, Edwin Poots.

The Rethink Waste Fund, which was launched by the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) in June 2010, provides grants to assist local authorities with waste reduction, reuse and recycling projects. It is administered in conjunction with the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) and had a boost in September 2010 when its funding was raised from £3.13 million to £5.13 million.

The funding is designed to cover the cost of capital items and allows councils to submit proposals either individually, in partnership with other councils or in partnership with the voluntary/private sector. However, the voluntary/private sector cannot apply directly to secure funding.

On a visit to Voluntary Service Lisburn, one of the recipients of a grant, Poots explained the reason behind the fund, “We have increasingly stringent targets to meet in order to reduce the amount of waste we send to landfill. Everyone has a vested interest in this because if we fail to meet these targets we will face heavy fines that will be passed on to the ratepayer.”

The organisations which received funding from this round of applications include:

• Arena Network, £15,000 to go towards developing environmental cluster groups and environmental management systems;
• Bryson House and Tidy Northern Ireland, a joint project between waste and recycling firm Bryson and the anti-litter campaign received £62,037 to go towards its Eco-Schools project;
• Council for the Homeless and FareShare, £30,530 for a food waste prevention pilot scheme;
• Cloughmills Community Action Team, £5,440 towards developing a community garden project;
• East Belfast Mission, a community development project in the country's capital was awarded £47,173 for a furniture reuse scheme;
• International Synergies Limited, £10,000 for a waste symbiosis programme;
• Voluntary Services Lisburn, a registered charity was awarded £70,000 for a furniture reuse scheme.

For more information, see:

• Landfill (Scheme Year and Maximum Landfill Amount) Regulations SI 2004/1936;
• Waste Regulations (Northern Ireland) SR 2011/127.