Community Fund opens for second year to support more community-led initiatives to cut waste and promote sustainability

The Recycle for Greater Manchester Community Fund is open for applications

Local groups and voluntary organisations have another opportunity to apply for funding to help cut waste and promote sustainability through the Recycle for Greater Manchester (R4GM) Community Fund, which opened on 1 April.

The community fund is a joint R4GM and SUEZ initiative to support Greater Manchester community and voluntary sector groups to deliver projects that help to reduce household waste in Greater Manchester.

The £220,000 community fund will be divided between two different award categories.

A total of £180,000 is available for projects that will benefit individual council areas within Greater Manchester, with a maximum of £10,000 per project for schemes in Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, or Trafford (this excludes Wigan as they operate separate waste disposal arrangements).

A Greater Manchester level award will be open to projects that cover more than one council area or all nine councils (excluding Wigan). A total of £40,000 of funding is on offer with a maximum of £20,000 available per project.

Any charity, community, voluntary and faith groups, schools, colleges, universities or not for profit organisations can apply online for funding this year from 1 April to 31 May.

A wide variety of entries are welcomed, and might include:

• A project that reduces food waste by teaching people how to prepare meals using ingredients they’d usually throw away
• An initiative that collects unwanted textiles to use in crafting sessions that improve connectivity and mental health
• Repair workshops that help people learn the skills to fix broken items instead of buying new ones.

Last year, successful projects included The Food Collective’s zero waste community supermarket; the Green Superheroes project by Future Directions CIC; and No Time to Waste by Rochdale Intraquest.

To find out more and apply for the fund, visit Recycle for Greater Manchester.