Eco-cash boost for furniture ‘upcyclers’
AFUNDING boost has been given to a Halton project in a bid to make the area a cleaner and greener place.
The Merseyside Recycling And Waste Authority (MRWA) And Veolia Community Fund 2017-18 has allocated a share of £115,000 to Project UP, which gives furniture a second life through reuse and redesign.
The initiative is run by Groundwork Cheshire, Lancashire And Merseyside and operates in the borough.
It involves the collection of domestic furniture, upcycling it via the Project UP workshop and redistributing the results.
It mainly focuses support to those most in need by providing furniture free of charge.
Successful applicants in the Community Fund have been awarded up to £25,000 for schemes which operate across Merseyside and Halton, and up to £8,000 for projects which work solely at local authority level.
Other projects funded include cookery skills clubs to help reduce food waste across Merseyside and Halton.
MRWA chair Cllr Graham Morgan said: “These projects can have a significant impact on their local community and make Merseyside and Halton a cleaner and greener place for us all to live and work.
“Giving groups the opportunity to get involved in looking after their environment can only bring benefits to all and can help us appreciate items as valuable resources rather than something which otherwise might be just thrown away.
“The projects really seem to understand the importance of resource efficiency and community education. We’re really looking forward to seeing what they achieve.”
The Children’s Food Trust is one organisation to have previously benefitted from the fund.
Head of cookery Maggie Sims said: “We at The Children’s Food Trust are extremely grateful for the support our projects have received from the Community Fund.
“Food waste is some- thing we are extremely passionate about tackling.
“We are working to reduce avoidable household food waste and to enable families to save money and the Community Fund has enabled us to do this.
“Thanks to previous funding we have trained 50 Merseyside and Halton leaders to run cookery clubs for families and communities reaching at least 2,500 children and adults.
“The club leaders have helped to educate about food waste and have increased cooking skills and in turn the fund is helping to create healthier lifestyles and environments for children as they grow up.”
The financial support is designed for groups to help reduce household waste, encourage recycling and resource re-use, and prevent carbon emissions.
Projects have March 2018 to their schemes. until deliver