The UK Plastics Pact has launched a £1.4 million project to reduce plastic waste.

The UK Plastics Pact has launched a £1.4 million project to reduce plastic waste.

The project will be in the form of a competition which was launched at the inaugural annual meeting for members of the UK Plastics Pact held in London yesterday.

The UK Circular Plastics Flagship Projects Competition, managed by Wrap UK, forms part of the £20 million Plastic Research and Innovation fund announced by the Chancellor in the Autumn statement in 2017.

The competition is open to any UK businesses with fresh ideas to tackle plastic waste. Grants will be awarded for between £100,000 and £500,000 to support the piloting and evaluation with a view to a wider implementation.

Professor Duncan Wingham, Executive Chair, Natural Environment Research Council and PRIF lead for UKRI, said: “We are partnering with WRAP as experts in this sector, to join up our approach and support for the UK plastics and packing sector. The UK Circular Plastics Flagship Projects Competition launching today complements our recent funding calls by working with businesses to implement new ideas to achieve the targets set out in the UK Plastics Pact.”

The UK Plastics Pact currently has 67 members that represent retailers, manufacturers and the plastic supply sector. Nearly 70 per cent of all plastic waste in the UK is packaging and this is what the UK Plastics Pact aims to address.

Sam Gyimah, Science, Research and Innovation Minister, said: “We’ve all seen heart-breaking images of sea creatures struggling to breathe due to plastic pollution and the Blue Planet effect has made it impossible to forget that plastics are a growing threat to our planet. Programmes like the Plastics and Research Innovation Fund give innovators the chance to develop creative fixes for one of our biggest global challenges.”

 

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Zdroj: www.climateaction.org