£9.5 million is to be spent by the Welsh Government on three new recycling programmes.
Led by WRAP Cymru, the initiatives will focus upon increasing recycling of food waste, textiles and waste electronic and electrical equipment (WEEE). The following campaigns will be launched to encourage recycling, the Wales:
The food waste prevention programme aims to minimise both the carbon and water footprint of Welsh food and drink producers. It intends to persuade consumers to make changes to their shopping, cooking and eating habits to reduce food waste. In doing this it is hoped that the programme will also help to tackle obesity.
The primary aim of the sustainable products programme, is to create a circular economy in Wales with regard to electrical and textile products. Dr Liz Goodwin, WRAP Chief Executive stated:
''Part of this work will be to inspire manufacturers to rethink the way they design and produce goods, supporting retailers to make it easier to return products which are no longer needed, encouraging shoppers to make the most of what they buy and enabling reprocessors to collect and recover high value raw materials.''
Finally, the resource management programme intends to work with organisations to help facilitate the reuse of products and focus on obtaining the best value from natural resources.
The programmes will run until March 2018 and are intended to help keep Wales at the forefront of UK recycling. Dr Goodwin added:
''The programmes are designed to deliver a circular economy for Wales, because we believe that Wales has the potential to become the first truly circular economy.''
In 2014-15 Wales recycled 56% of its municipal waste and is on target to achieve 70% recycled municipal waste by 2025. Wales also has an ambitious goal of zero waste by 2050.
