WRAP launches £1.4million UK circular plastics competition

A new £1.4 million flagship projects competition was launched at the inaugural annual meeting for members of The UK Plastics Pact, held in London last week.

The competition, which is managed by WRAP and working in partnership with UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), was one of several special announcements made at the Summit.

It forms part of the £20 million Plastic Research and Innovation fund (PRIF) which was announced by the Chancellor during the Autumn Statement in 2017.

It is hoped it will engage Britain's best scientists and innovators to help move the country towards more circular economic and sustainable approaches to plastics.

Grants will be awarded under the UK Circular Plastics Flagship Projects Competition to applicants who demonstrate creative business ideas to reduce the environmental impacts of plastic, and which bring greater circularity in the use of plastic.

Professor Duncan Wingham, Executive Chair, Natural Environment Research Council and PRIF lead for UKRI, explained: “The Plastics Research Innovation Fund brings the strength of UK Research and Innovation’s entire portfolio, from environment to technology to business to behaviour and regulation, to bear on the pressing and very widely recognised problem of plastic waste.

“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 Circular Plastics Flagship Projects Competition is open to any UK business with fresh ideas to tackle the issue of plastic waste.

Grants will be awarded for between £100,000 and £500,000 subject to match-funding, to support the piloting and evaluation with a view to wider implementation.

Businesses wishing to apply must consider projects in relation to the four central criteria: to reduce the total volume of plastic waste arising from the UK; to significantly improve the rate of UK plastic recycling; to reduce levels of confusion amongst citizens; and to reduce the amount of plastic ending up in the world’s oceans.

Updates from the Summit

The 2018 UK Plastics Pact Summit was the first meeting of Pact members since the programme launched in April 2018, with more than 150 delegates from across the supply chain attending.

New WRAP research and guidance were introduced, which address key issues around plastic packaging, and with the collecting and processing of post-consumer plastics.

They included: design tips for making rigid plastic packaging more recyclable; an update to national recycling guidelines; composition of plastics waste collected via kerbside; the launch of a plastics packaging dataflow report; and guidelines for the minimum thickness of plastic bottles for recycling.

WRAP Chief Executive, Marcus Gover, highlighted key activities WRAP has coordinated over the first six months of the UK Plastics Pact, with industry speakers from across the plastic chain sharing innovations made to address common issues in plastic use.

Said Gover: "I am delighted at the speed and level of commitment from The UK Plastics Pact in turning our ambition into action. We are on our journey to totally transforming the plastic system in the UK and tackling the urgent problem of plastic pollution. This starts with innovation, and I am delighted that we were able to announce the crucial support from partners like UKRI in funding new research opportunities.”

The Summit was also a chance for delegates to focus on future work under The UK Plastics Pact, with a draft of the forthcoming UK Plastics Pact Roadmap shared ahead of publication. This sets out the key actions and intermediate milestones businesses, and other members, will need to achieve to deliver each target by 2025, as well as highlighting the challenges ahead.

Once finalised, Pact members and supporters should embed the Roadmap milestones into their corporate and organisational targets.The UK Plastics Pact Roadmap is due to be published later this year, and will also inform action by Governments, funders, investors, NGOs and businesses who are not members of The UK Plastics Pact.