Fifteen community organisations across the Liverpool City Region have secured a share of a £165,000 investment to launch innovative waste reduction, reuse, and recycling initiatives.
Delivered through the Zero Waste Community Fund 2026/27 — a partnership between Merseyside Recycling & Waste Authority (MRWA) and Veolia — the funding will empower grassroots projects to tackle high-priority waste including food, textiles, and electronics. These locally-led schemes aim to embed sustainable habits and reduce the region’s carbon footprint by the project deadline in March 2027.
Earlier this year the organisations had to bid for the funding which will give them the financial support to deliver waste-reducing behavioural change projects across the region. The successful projects encompass diverse activities like a travelling textiles education van, cookery classes to reduce food waste, schools assemblies, furniture upcycling workshops and an electronics repair café.
Lesley Worswick, Chief Executive of MRWA, praised the initiative, saying: “The Zero Waste Community Fund is about turning inspiring ideas into lasting environmental action. We have awarded 15 projects that demonstrate exactly how we can rethink our relationship with ‘waste’ — transforming it instead into a resource for our communities. We eagerly anticipate the results of their hard work as they help us build a cleaner, greener, and healthier region for everyone.”
Project applications had to tackle one or more of the five priority household waste materials which have been identified by MRWA as key, namely Food, Furniture, Electricals, Plastics and Textiles. An analysis of waste in the Liverpool City Region highlighted that a greater amount of these materials could be reused or recycled.
Merseyisde Scouts are proud to deliver a project in collaboration with Cook Clean and Green called “Scouting Towards Zero Waste” an initiaitve to deliver key skills for life, supporting 30 adult volunteers to learn skills and gain new equipment to teach young people how to cook cleanly and greenly.
Matthew Jones, County Support Team Leader at Merseyside Scouts, said: “Our brand new initiative will see us work with Suzanne and the team at Cook Clean and Green to deliver Level 2 Food Safety Training, Cooking Classes, and give all the kit and ingredients to 30 adults across Merseyside. They’ll then pass on this knowledge to our young people meaning over 7,000 young people can gain new skills, knowledge, and experience of cooking, a key skill for life. We are massively thankful to MRWA through the Zero Waste LCR scheme for almost £30,000 of funding to deliver this across Wirral, Sefton, St. Helens, Liverpool, and Knowsley.”
The impact of the Fund is already evident through previous recipients, such as Crosby-based Mencap Liverpool & Sefton, which in 2023 was awarded £7990 to deliver for the reuse and repair project Fix Up, Look Sharp.
Carolyn McConnell, Chief Executive at Mencap Liverpool & Sefton, said: “Our Fix Up, Look Sharp project used regular workshops to give people the skills and opportunities to reimagine and repurpose clothes, plastics and furniture. We wanted to equip all our participants with the knowledge and inspiration to rescue, repair and repurpose items that could otherwise have been thrown away.
“Our new project Reuse, Recycle and Repair with Mencap builds on previous work and will run workshops around repair and food waste reduction, as well as hosting swap shops to help launch an onsite charity shop. I hope that we can help people to understand the consequences of unnecessary waste so that everyone engaged with the project is motivated to consume more responsibly.”
