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.
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.”
The fifteen successful 2026/27 organisations have got until March 2027 to deliver their projects.
ENDS
Note to editors
| Project and organisation | Area | Material focus | Project summary |
| Swap Shop – Vibe Charitable Incorporated Org | Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton & St Helens | Textiles | Working with young people (11-17) across various youth councils to create a travelling textiles project. The core group and van will move across districts offering education sessions linked to fast fashion, second hand clothing, upcycling and sewing skills and hosting swap shops with donated/repaired/upcycled clothing. |
| Scouting Towards Zero Waste – Merseyside Scouts | Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens & Wirral | Food & Plastic | Food waste skills delivered through trickle down training. Supporting 30 unit leads to learn the skills and access equipment to support up to five sessions in each area. |
| Waste Not, Dance Lots – Alchemic Kitchen | Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton & St Helens | Food | Large scale educational food sessions providing Disco Chops (active musical cook-alongs) focusing on utilising unwanted to wasted veg stock. As well as a community event day offering apple gleaning utilising unharvested stock for juice, baking and more. |
| School Uniform & Clothing Reuse Project – Roberts Recycling Ltd | All | Textiles | Pilot Supporting five schools in the reuse and redistribution of uniforms and other textiles, through educational session, assemblies and resources. |
| St Marks Waste Less Community Programme – St Stephens Gateacre PCE | Liverpool | WEE, Textiles & Food | Ambitious community church project covering multiple reuse/repair and waste reduction projects including – launch of a monthly repair cafe & lending library, 3 clothing swaps (2 uniforms, 1 coats), and a range of cooking and composting sessions utilising their community garden. |
| Reuse, Restore & Repair – Lets Talk2Day CIC | Knowsley | Food, Textiles & Furniture | Project focusing on repair and reuse across multiple sessions including repair workshops, sewing skills lessons and food waste workshops. These sessions aim to generate core volunteers or champions to help continue the work long term. Supported by quarterly swap shop events and a final showcase. |
| Threads for Change – Amber Button Community CIC | Wirral | Textiles | A Wirral based repair and revive workshop focusing on sewing skills, garment altering and care advice to extend product life. As well as two larger swap shop events and a final celebration event. |
| Reduce and Reuse at Micah – Micah Liverpool | Liverpool | Food & Textiles | Splitting their focus over two areas Micah will offer 8 sewing skills workshops working on repairing and repurposing clothing and home textiles, followed by 10 food waste sessions around utilising ‘waste’ kitchen products and showcasing skills such as batch cooking, freezing and storing. |
| Waste Less the Eco Way – The Eco Therapy Garden CIC | Knowsley | Food & Textiles | Sessions held at a local community garden focusing on food growing, waste prevention and composting know as from plot to plate. Aswell as hosting textile swap shop and sewing skills sessions, providing repair skills, and sessions on utilising ‘scrap material’ such as reclaimed yarn and wool. |
| Renew, Reuse & Recycle Waste Wood – Walton Vale Community Shop | Liverpool | Furniture, WEE & Other | Utilising scrap furniture, pallets and wooden boxes in hands on woodwork sessions creating, ornaments, bird boxes and planters. As well as the creation of a scrap library to support future projects. |
| Switch & Stitch – The Hearth Network | Sefton | Textiles | Offering 6 clothing swaps across Sefton parallel to a 4 hour repair skills session to support those accessing the project. Session will focus on a range of skills from basic stitch to tailoring and upcycling and will be shaped for each venue and the time of year. |
| Save & Store – The Venus Charity | Sefton | Food | A six month project focusing on food skills around cooking, storage and meal planning to support long term waste reduction. |
| Sewing Connections CIC | Sefton | Textiles | A sewing specific organisation providing additional days free of charge to the local community to support sewing skills, repair and reuse. Mainly focusing on repair skill sessions and repurposing scrap material into items to donate to charities including mastectomy cushions & IV bags. |
| Reuse, Recycle and Repair with Mencap – Mencap Sefton & Liverpool | Sefton | Food, Textiles & Other | Building off a 2024/25 project looking to run workshops in their cafe around repair and food waste reduction, as well as hosting 2 swap shops to help launch an onsite charity shop. |
| Growing Sustainable Futures – Kindling Farm | Knowsley | Food | A local farming co-operative offering a 6 week seasonal growing and cooking course and 6 week furniture repair and upcycling course. Alongside school visits around the food cycling and access to locally grown produce. The project aims to end with a Zero Waste Food Event celebrating season, local food, composting and more. |
Image caption: Attached images show the Mencap Liverpool & Sefton project Fix Up, Look Sharp.
*Statistic from Merseyside and Halton Waste Composition Analysis 2021/22
- Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority is responsible for the disposal of municipal waste on Merseyside. Established in 1986 following the abolition of Merseyside County Council, it is a statutory Authority that works with all the local authorities on Merseyside – Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens and Wirral. MRWA takes a lead in advocating recycling, waste reduction and safe and effective disposal of waste for Merseyside residents.
- MRWA operates (via a contract with resource management company Veolia) 16 Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRC’s) for householders in the Merseyside area wishing to recycle and dispose of their own waste.
- The Zero Waste Community Fund 2026/27 has seen 15 community groups from Merseyside and Halton receive a funding boost to help make the region a cleaner and greener place. The financial support will see the groups help reduce household waste, encourage recycling and resource re-use, and prevent carbon emissions.
Members of the media for more information please contact:
John Lally | Communications and Development Officer
Merseyside Recycling & Waste Authority