£1.5 million for Highland-wide climate movement to reduce waste

Issued by The National Lottery Community Fund 

Community groups across the Highlands are coming together as part of a new climate movement to help reduce waste and tackle a throwaway culture.  The Highland Community Waste Partnership, led by Keep Scotland Beautiful, is being made possible by a £1,498,568 award, announced today (Tue 25 January) by The National Lottery Community Fund.

Thanks to National Lottery players, this new Highland-wide initiative will increase awareness amongst local people of how unsustainable consumption contributes to climate change.

It will do this through several different strands including a focus on reducing food waste; tackling single use items; and supporting communities to reduce their carbon footprint by substituting new purchases for pre-loved, repaired and shared goods.

The project will support Scotland’s ambitions to have a circular economy and become a Net Zero nation by 2025.

Key to its success will be a partnership approach led by Keep Scotland Beautiful, working with and drawing on the skills and experience the following eight grassroots community groups:

• The Lochaber Environment Group (Fort William)
• Broadford and Strath Community Company (Isle of Skye)
• Ullapool Community Trust
• Thurso Community Development Trust
• Lairg Learning Centre
• Transition Black Isle
• The Highland Good Food Partnership (Highland-wide)
• Velocity (Inverness )

Welcoming the funding, Barry Fisher, CEO of Keep Scotland Beautiful said, “We’re thrilled that the Highland Community Waste Partnership project is to receive National Lottery funding over three years from the Climate Action Fund.  This exciting new project will enable us to work in partnership with eight community groups across the Highlands to reduce consumption and waste, helping them to connect with each other and scale up activities that we know work whilst also piloting new ones.

“Kicking off in April, the project will bring focus to how unsustainable consumption contributes to climate change working across four key objectives to: increase understanding of how the choices we make can impact our climate; increase the use of pre-loved, repaired and shared goods; support people and businesses to reduce food waste; and reduce single-use items and packaging.

“We are very much looking forward to working in collaboration with others to support a range of activities from Climate Cafés, film nights, and waste reduction workshops, to trialling innovative ways to increase the availability and uptake of recycling and reuse while promoting sustainable tourism and growing and sharing networks.”

National Lottery Community Fund’s Scotland Chair, Kate Still, said: “A huge congratulations to Keep Scotland Beautiful and all of its partner organisations who will each bring to bear their own skills and experience to deliver this new Highland-wide climate action project.

“With a particular focus on tackling waste, it will help to communities to take collective action and make the the connections between climate change and unsustainable consumption. This will not only help us get to net zero but will also help people and communities across the Highlands to thrive.”

Thanks to National Lottery players, 21 community-led waste and consumption focused projects across the UK are today receiving funding from the Climate Action Fund - a £100 million fund that aims to reduce the carbon footprint of communities and support community-led movements that demonstrate what is possible when people take the lead in tackling climate change.

Since 2016, we have awarded £397 million through more than 6,000 grants which involve environmental action, including action on waste and consumption, energy, transport, food and the natural environment. National Lottery players raise £30 million each week across the UK for good causes.  

To find out more visit www.tnlcommunityfund.org.uk.