FAQs - Circular Textiles Fund

The application is a two-stage process.

Stage one is the completion of an Expression of Interest (EOI) form which provides some details on your project proposal and organisation. The form can be requested from our website and should be returned to Zero Waste Scotland by email no later than 12pm Friday 16 June 2023.

Applicants who have successfully met the EOI criteria will be contacted to provide more information through a Stage 2 Application Form.

Those that have been unsuccessful will be notified by 26 June 2023.

Expression of Interest opened on 4 May 2023, closing on 12pm on Friday 16 June 2023.

At stage one (EOI) of the applications process we collect information on your organisation and proposed project, this is to help us determine eligibility against the assessment criteria, more detail on these are in the Guidance Notes and Question 5 in the FAQ’s.

Those who are successful at stage one will be required to submit additional supporting evidence as part of their stage two application.

Stage one applications (Expression of Interest forms) opened on the Zero Waste Scotland website on 4 May 2023 and must be returned by email to textiles@zerowastescotland.org.uk by 12pm on Friday 16 June 2023.

Expression of Interest applications will be assessed, with applicants being advised if they have been invited to stage 2 by 26 June 2023.

Stage 2 will open on 26 June 2023 when we will invite successful stage 1 applicants to submit more information.

Applications will be assessed against their ability to: 

• Accelerate a circular transition in Scotland: projects must actively contribute to improving circularity in textiles in Scotland;
• Deliver economic and inclusive growth: demonstrates additionality in terms of economic/social benefits e.g., jobs, turnover increase, social inclusion etc;
• Waste reduction: Contributes to the reduction of textile waste in Scotland, including diversion of waste from landfill, improving end of life options, moving waste up the hierarchy etc;
• Carbon impact: Achieve a positive impact on Carbon emissions; this may be a carbon saving or through adding value to a ‘waste’ product or material and/or utilising a less carbon intensive material. Zero Waste Scotland would like to see wherever possible that projects demonstrate how they will offer significant carbon savings and an estimation of what these will be in tCO2e (tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent);
• Innovation: Level of innovation in developing / providing new or untested solutions for the Scottish market, including collaborative partnerships. Projects must be well advanced along the development pathway. Early-stage research or basic science projects will not be supported.

Projects must be delivered by 31 March 2024. 

Applications will be assessed by a panel of judges including Zero Waste Scotland and partner organisations.

First stage (EOI) applications will be assessed during June, with applicants being advised if they have been successful or unsuccessful by 26 June 2023.

Those that are successful at stage one will be invited to submit more information from 26 June 2023. 

• Minimum grant value which can be applied for is £25,000;
• Maximum grant value is £500,000.  Zero Waste Scotland reserves the right to consider projects of greater value on a case-by-case basis;
• The maximum intervention rate is 50%;
• Overall grant budget allocation is split as 75% Capital Expenditure and 25% Operating Expenditure, whilst we do not expect projects to reflect this, it may impact the availability of funding. 

Funding will be awarded to successful applicants based on budget availability and the ability of the application to meet the assessment criteria by 31 March 2024. It is not guaranteed that the full amount of funding applied for will be awarded but we will try to award full funding support to the applicants that best meet the assessment criteria..

The maximum intervention rate is 50%.

Overall grant budget allocation is split as 75% Capital Expenditure and 25% Operating Expenditure, whilst we do not expect projects to reflect this, it may impact the availability of funding..

Please see the ‘Guidance Notes for Completion of Stage 1 – Expression of Interest Form for Circular Textiles Fund’ for more information.

The funding will be awarded as a grant. It will be awarded against project milestones and paid retrospectively once milestones are achieved and evidence of the spend has been provided.

If you are successful in your application we will move to contract negotiations, agree the milestones and as soon as that contract is signed you can start to drawdown the money assuming you have met your milestones and provided us with the evidence.

Zero Waste Scotland is administering the fund on behalf of Scottish Government.

Please see the ‘Guidance Notes for Completion of Stage 1 – Expression of Interest Form for Circular Textiles Fund’ for more information. 

The Circular Textiles Fund will follow Zero Waste Scotland’s standard terms and conditions for grant agreements.  This can be requested from Zero Waste Scotland by emailing textiles@zerowastescotland.org.uk.

This funding programme is open to the following registered organisations:

• SME’s
• Large Organisations
• Third Sector Organisations (including community and voluntary groups, registered charities, foundations, trusts, social enterprises, Community Interest Companies (CICs) and cooperatives)
• Collaboration between two or more organisations is actively encouraged.

Additional criteria:

• Organisations can be Headquartered out with Scotland but the project being funded must be based permanently in Scotland.  The majority of inputs to the project shall come from arisings sourced in Scotland.
• A minimum of 12 months trading history is requested
• Applicants must be a Living Wage Employer
• Ability to match fund minimum of 50% of project costs
• Applications seeking support for an extension of “Business As Usual” will only be considered at the discretion of the funding panel if the additional outputs are deemed to contribute significantly to the fund outcomes
• The project spend must be complete by 31 March 2024.

To be eligible to apply for a grant, your project should meet the following criterion:    

• Accelerate a circular transition in Scotland:  Actively contribute to improving circularity in textiles in Scotland through a) demonstrating that the project will result in a carbon saving or add value to a ‘waste’ product or material; and b) meeting at least one of the objectives of the Fund;
• Deliver economic and inclusive growth:  Demonstrates additionality in terms of economic/social benefits e.g. jobs, turnover increase, social inclusion etc;
• Waste reduction: Contributes to the reduction of textile waste in Scotland, including diversion of waste from landfill, improving end of life options, moving waste up the hierarchy etc;
• Carbon Impact: Achieve a positive impact on Carbon emissions; this may be a carbon saving or through adding value to a ‘waste’ product or material.  Zero Waste Scotland would like to see wherever possible that projects demonstrate how they will offer significant carbon savings and an estimation of what these will be in tCO2e (tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent);
• Innovation: Level of innovation in developing / providing new or untested solutions for the Scottish market, including collaborative partnerships.  Projects must be well advanced along the development pathway. Early-stage research or basic science  projects will not be supported. 

Eligible costs items may include, but are not limited to:   

• Plant, equipment, and machinery 
• Delivery and installation 
• Buildings 
• Vehicles 
• Staff costs 
• Expenditure which was incurred on or after the date any agreement has been finalised and signed, up to the closing date of fund.   
• Please see the ‘Guidance Notes for Completion of Stage 1 – Expression of Interest Form for Circular Textiles Fund’ for more information. 

Yes - collaborations between two or more organisations is actively encouraged.

Yes.

Organisations can be Headquartered out with Scotland but the project being funded must be based permanently in Scotland. The majority of inputs to the project shall come from arisings sourced in Scotland. A minimum of 12 months trading history is required.

For guidance on the CE in Scotland, potential applicants may refer to our Circular Economy and Business pages.

This includes but is not limited to clothing, household and industrial textiles.

The Circular Textiles Fund is open to applicants from all businesses in Scotland. Whether you make the initial fabrics, design the garments, manufacture textile products, sell them or rent them out.  If you use a lot of textiles in your operations, like large volumes of bedding or uniforms.  

Or even if you are not a textile business at all, but can bring innovative and disruptive new tech or systems that can help accelerate a move to circularity.

The project spend must be complete by 31 March 2024.

Visit the Living Wage website for more information.

The Living Wage aims to support businesses, workers and society.  More information can be found on Living Wage Scotland. It also supports Scotland’s National Strategy for Economic Transformation.

Yes.

The post being claimed for must allocate 100% of its time to this project only.

Please visit FindBusinessSupport.gov.scot and the funding page on the Zero Waste Scotland website for more information on other funding opportunities. 

The aim of this fund is to improve the circularity of textiles in Scotland through innovation but also implementation to help tackle the environmental impacts that textiles have.  The fund will provide opportunities for businesses and third-sector organisations of all sizes to develop and deliver solutions to reduce waste and carbon impacts of all textiles (clothing, household and industrial). We particularly encourage a collaborative approach. 

The fund will focus on five main areas: 

• Reducing consumption - measures that encourage more responsible consumption of textiles, such as clothing and textile rental, reuse, and repair.  
• Design for circularity - supporting organisations to improve how clothing and soft furnishings are designed to maximise the end-of-life potential. This could include specifying preferred materials, reducing the use of mix materials, reducing chemicals used that can affect the ability to reuse and recycle products, material labelling, and adjustability for resizing. 
• Supply chain management and specification - supporting organisations who procure textiles, be it uniform, bedding including mattresses, soft furnishings to specify materials and designs that can be easily reused, repaired and have a reduced impact. This could include closed loop pilots for low-impact materials for bedding (including second-life fabrics), uniforms that can be altered for reuse, and diversion from incineration of uniforms by smart design. 
• Clothing care and chemical reclaim and management - Supporting organisations to develop chemical reclaim processes and prevent plastic shedding. This could include overcoming the challenges of flame retardant chemicals and banned substances, and implementation of new inert methods or systems for end-of-life processing. 
• End of life (reprocessing) - Supporting organisations to maximise the potential of waste textiles. This could include material sorting technologies to better sort and grade for reuse, creation of new products from waste, tonnage being moved up the waste hierarchy, and reprocessing of problem materials. 

Please see the ‘Guidance Notes for Completion of Stage 1 – Expression of Interest Form for Circular Textiles Fund’ for more information. 

The Circular Textile Fund aims to support Scottish businesses in making a just transition to a circular economy.  Funding aims to help Scotland deliver better economic and environmental performance in the textiles industry. 

More information on Scotland’s National Strategy for Economic Transformation can be found on the Scottish Government website.