Zero Waste Scotland has made funds available for investment in solutions to marine plastic pollution.
Speaking at the 2018 Scottish Resources Conference Roseanna Cunningham MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform, announced a fund to support solutions for capture, collection and recovery of plastics in the ocean. The full extent of funds available to address marine plastic pollution in Scotland now totals £1 million.
Along with support from the European Regional Development Fund, £1m total includes funding from Marine Scotland for trials of demonstration technologies, to address litter sinks – areas of coastline where wind direction and tidal motion cause marine litter to accumulate – and removal of marine plastic pollution.
Zero Waste Scotland Chief Executive Iain Gulland said: “Scotland’s marine environment is increasingly suffering from our throwaway habits, and very visibly when it comes to the proliferation of single-use plastics. We know this is an issue people across Scotland are keen to see action on.
“Through these funds, we are looking to invest in innovative projects which prevent plastics entering the marine environment or propose operational solutions to capture, collect, recover and reprocess marine waste plastics – allowing them to be processed for high value recovery. These projects have the potential to benefit our environment, our economy and our coastlines.”
Zero Waste Scotland, which is working with Young Enterprise Scotland to encourage grant applications from young innovators, is inviting grant applications for up to £1m to develop processes and technologies which will reduce marine plastic pollution in Scotland. Solutions can include preventing plastic waste from entering the sea in the first place, or removing existing plastics from the sea to be reprocessed for high value recovery.
Small and medium-sized enterprises whose projects can enable “transformational change” in addressing marine plastic pollution have until Friday 16 November to apply for funding through Zero Waste Scotland’s Circular Economy Investment Fund and Waste Prevention Implementation Fund.
