Material Focus, an independent not-for-profit organisation whose mission is to stop electricals from being hoarded and thrown away, is offering grants to communities across the UK to reuse and recycle small household electricals.

A total of £750,000 is available to support two types of projects:

Growing existing services – grants of up to £100,000 for projects that grow existing collection methods for small electricals. This could be community drop points in libraries and other community locations, adding cages under refuse collection vehicles, bring banks/WEEE banks.

Innovating new methods – grants of up to £50,000 to come up with new approaches to repair, reuse and/or recycle electricals, for example, collection points at large offices/campuses, drop-offs at post offices, major supermarkets, large shopping centres, retail parks, collection of waste electricals using the return journey/spare capacity during collection/delivery of parcels, or projects that support tackling the growing concerns around digital inclusion.

The funding can be used for:

The purchase of new bins/collection points (‘bring banks’).
The adaptation of waste collection vehicles to include cages for kerbside WEEE.
Vehicle rental.
Installation of bins.
Communication and marketing materials.
Staffing costs to cover the time spent planning and delivering the project.
Salaries if the person is working to deliver the funded project.

A range of registered organisations can apply, including charities, local authorities, waste partnerships, private waste contractors, other private companies, and compliance schemes.

Material Focus will provide successful applicants with project management support.

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis.

For more information, please visit Electricals Recycling Fund - Material Focus