Thousands of pounds are available to businesses involved in wood recycling.
WRAP (the Waste & Resources Action Programme) and the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) have launched a new capital support competition which aims to accelerate investment in higher value wood recycling and create new wood processing infrastructure, particularly in the south-east where a market gap has been identified.
Each year the south-east generates around one million tonnes of wood waste, most of which goes to landfill.
Research by WRAP revealed that if end market demand can be generated and appropriate reprocessing capacity put in place, then sufficient collection infrastructure already exists to generate the necessary supply of wood waste.
The competition aims to divert more wood waste into higher value uses by creating new wood reprocessing capacity in the south-east and increasing the manufacture of added value recycled wood products.
WRAP would like to see 100,000 tonnes of additional recycling infrastructure, primarily in the south-east, from which 35,000 tonnes would be recycled into value added products.
The grant aid is targeted particularly at helping small- and medium-sized businesses to cover the capital costs involved in creating new re-processing capacity, such as land, buildings and machinery. This will enable the manufacture of high value recycled wood products, such as horticultural products, and the production of recycled wood suitable for incorporation into panel board products and composting with green waste.
Last year’s capital support to wood recyclers saw grants allocated ranging from £30,000 to £612,000.
For details of how to enter the competition visit www.wrap.org.uk.
