WEEE recycling charity Materials Focus has launched a brand new £1million “Circular Electricals Fund” to help the event of a extra round electricals system within the UK. At present too many new electrical merchandise aren’t designed to be simply reused and recycled – and the UK wants higher methods to recuperate the dear supplies inside them which might be thrown away. The fund is searching for purposes for brand new concepts that preserve electricals and their supplies in use for longer and cut back e-waste.
Materials Focus is searching for initiatives that may present innovation with influence that: enhance useful resource effectivity, cut back environmental influence, and encourage collaboration throughout trade. Funding is on the market for as much as £150,000 per profitable undertaking. Purposes for the “Circular Electricals Fund” are invited from UK organisations, together with trade our bodies, nonprofits, personal corporations, compliance schemes, universities, and analysis establishments. The time limit for utility is 14 August 2025.
E-waste is the fastest-growing waste stream on the earth. Within the UK alone, we bin over 100,000 tonnes of electricals yearly, and we’ve got over 800 million+ unused, undesirable and discarded electricals stashed away in our houses. These electricals comprise a number of the most treasured supplies on our planet, which in keeping with Materials Focus’s analysis are worth nearly £1 billion, together with copper, lithium and gold, which when used inefficiently or thrown away are misplaced perpetually.
Scott Butler, Government Director, Materials Focus mentioned: “We have already funded over 60 projects that make it easier to fix, donate, and recycle existing electricals for over 10 million people across the UK. However, we are designing and making too many products without full consideration of the materials they are made from, the repairability of them, and how easy it is to recover useful parts and materials.. We are delighted to be announcing our new £1m Circular Electricals Fund which will help drive innovation and support the development of a more circular electricals system in the UK. We are looking for ambitious projects that can bring fresh new ideas to reduce the environmental impact of electricals by improving product design, improving resource efficiency, and encouraging collaboration.”
Mission purposes might want to exhibit sensible, scalable options that improve useful resource effectivity, cut back environmental influence, and encourage collaboration that tackle the next key challenges:
- Supplies – creating new strategies for extra effectively recovering supplies similar to know-how metals and different priceless supplies from e-waste similar to superior recycling applied sciences making certain that their worth is recovered.
- Product design – making electricals extra sturdy, repairable, upgradeable, and lengthy lasting. For instance, designing shopper and family electricals with simply replaceable elements to increase their lifespan.
- Enterprise fashions – creating new providers that promote reuse, sharing, and waste discount (e.g. leasing, product-as-a-service, good houses, libraries of issues).
The Round Electricals Fund will present a spread of alternatives together with: contribute to the creation of a round electricals system; community and collaborate with key trade figures, and different changemakers who’re making it simpler to repair, donate and recycle electricals within the UK.
The Judges for the Round Electricals Fund are famend specialists of their fields and convey a spread of enterprise, environmental, know-how and innovation experience:
- Teresa Arbuckle, Managing Director UK and Eire at Beko PLC. Beko Europe is a number one dwelling home equipment enterprise, devoted to altering the lives of its clients by means of a variety of progressive and sustainable family merchandise and options.
- Asad Hamir, Co-Founding father of Klyk. Klyk is on a mission to take away waste from IT Capabilities with it’s Round strategy to IT, saving organisations cash and carbon while delivering scalable, safe IT that’s constructed for development.
- Andy Gomarsall, Government Director at n2s and a founding companion of Bioscope Applied sciences, each main round organisations. Andy champions the development of know-how recycling partnerships and advocates for sustainable innovation throughout the tech trade.
- Peter Moody, from GAP Group North East, a diversified waste administration and logistics firm with a give attention to sustainability and round financial system options. In 2024 Peter was named one of many High 50 most bold enterprise leaders and was the winner of ESG award.
- Yewande Akinola, Professor of Engineering. Yewande is an award-winning Engineer and Innovator. She holds a Bachelor’s diploma in Engineering Design and Applicable Expertise from the College of Warwick and a Masters in Innovation and Design for Sustainability from Cranfield College.
