• The Catalan Waste Agency regularly calls for a public funding package to support the sustainable transition of the Catalan territory
• This year's budget amounts to 1.3 million euros
• The Packaging Cluster, which has been participating in this initiative since 2016, submitted 4 proposals in February

In February, the Packaging Cluster presented 4 initiatives to the line of grants for projects to promote the circular economy promoted by the Waste Agency of Catalonia. This funding programme - with a budget of 1.3 million euros - contributes to the generation of new ideas and replicable proposals for better waste management and prevention in Catalonia, with the aim of achieving a more efficient and greener economic system.

The Packaging Cluster has submitted one class A project (initiatives that promote the market implementation of new products or services), two class B projects (to obtain and test prototypes or demonstration projects of new products or services) and one class C project (sectoral studies with communication actions for business associations or trade unions). Five members associated to the entity and another cluster participate, with the common objective of contributing new implementations of reuse, recycling and recovery of packaging.

The total budget of the 4 initiatives is more than 279,000 € with a requested aid of 189,804 €, more than half in all cases. In this way, the Catalan Waste Agency acts as a bridge between industry and environmental needs and offers a key funding channel for initiatives to revalue waste and improve resource management.

In the last call of 2021, 7 of the 8 projects promoted by the Packaging Cluster were approved, with the involvement of 16 companies and entities of the ecosystem and a grant of almost €250,000. Since the line of subsidies was created in 2016, the cluster has participated in all the calls for proposals.

"In a world that focuses (legislatively, socially and energetically) on reducing the carbon footprint, the cluster encourages projects that help our member companies to develop a strategy that is aligned with the waste hierarchy. Prioritising the actions of prevention, reuse and recycling, in this order" says Mercè Gorina Pradas, Sustainability Project Manager of the Packaging Cluster.