Scottish fresh produce businesses have the chance to apply for funding to become part of a ‘circular economy’ and turn waste into new sales opportunities.
The concept aims to link businesses within regional economies by converting waste products from one to raw materials for another, in an alternative to the current ‘take, make, dispose’ approach.
Announced by the Scottish cabinet secretary for Climate Change, Environment and Land Reform, Roseanna Cunningham, the funding will be coordinated by Zero Waste Scotland, which helps businesses identify and implement circular economy ideas.
Available grants range from £20,000 to £1,000,000, as part of a £18 million national circular economy investment by the Scottish Government and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Funding is available to local consortiums where the lead partner is classed as a small or medium sized enterprise.
“This targeted call builds on a pilot initiative last year with Glasgow Chamber of Commerce which completed a ‘circle scan’ of the regional economy to identify potential business growth opportunities, including a collaboration with Jaw Brew, an independent craft brewery and local bakery Aulds to develop a beer made by using waste bread,” said Zero Waste Scotland CEO, Iain Gulland.
“The project has proven very successful to date and other cities and areas have expressed an interest in replicating this approach.”
Gulland said the funding will help businesses be resource efficient and open up collaboration opportunities. “Our programme will deliver a step change in the scale, range and depth of existing resource efficiency work across all business and social economy sectors in Scotland,” he added.
Food waste campaign gathers momentum
The news comes as London newspaper Evening Standard recently launched a new campaign to highlight levels of food waste in the capital. As well as publishing supermarket food waste figures, the Standard is featuring articles from leading figures and businesses on the topic of food waste.
Borough Market trader Jenny Dawson Costa was profiled about how her business Rubies in the Rubble uses surplus fruit and veg to make chutney. As well as sourcing from the market, Dawson Costa collects around 1,300 surplus apples a week from Virgin Trains’ catering service, turns them into chutney and sells the end product back to the company.
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