Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will invest up to £250,000 from the Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging Programme to fund projects that will develop innovative ideas to help with the collection of flexible plastic packaging waste from households.

The ultimate goal of this competition is the reduction of the amount of waste ending up in landfill or in the environment. The selected projects will have the opportunity to develop their concept, and then present and prototype their idea as part of a nationwide trial to collect flexible plastic packaging waste from UK households.

Your project must:

• develop an idea and propose a design for containing or collecting household flexible plastic packaging waste that is easy to store in the home and easy to carry or transport; or

• encourage householders to collect flexible plastic packaging waste as a separate waste stream for kerbside collection or for transporting to collection points in supermarkets.

To be eligible, your project must:

• have a grant funding request between £25,000 and £50,000,

• start by 1 September 2023,

• end by 29 February 2024,

• last between three and six months,

• carry out its project work in the UK, and

• intend to exploit the results from or in the UK.

See: Competition overview - ISCF SSPP Collecting flexible plastic packaging waste at home - Innovation Funding Service (apply-for-innovation-funding.service.gov.uk)