Highland Community Waste Partnership looks to the future

The HCWP team got together in Inverness last week, for our second to last quarterly in-person meeting. The focus for this session was to discuss legacy and next steps for the project after March 2024.

The HCWP has been funded for the last three years by The National Lottery Climate Action Fund, to reduce waste and promote more sustainable consumption in the Highlands. Bringing together eight community groups, coordinated by Keep Scotland Beautiful, we have worked together to share ideas and resources, try new things, and build an understanding around what works for Highland communities.

With under six months left to go, we are now focusing on how we can share the progress we’ve made with others looking to reduce waste and consumption and how we can continue building on this work going forward. Here’s a few things to look out for over the coming months:

• Continuing work - There are a number of projects and activities that we are working on continuing post-March, including the Highland Repair Directory, sharing libraries and repair cafes, the In-vessel composter Common Interest Group and the Zero Waste Food Challenge, among others!
  We’ll be sharing more information about what each partner is working on over the coming weeks and months, so stay tuned!

• Webinars and climate conference – We’re keen to share our experience of working in partnership to tackle waste and consumption, as well as specific insights around our work on food waste & composting, share & repair and single-use items & packaging. Keep an eye out for our webinar series in March as well as a number of in-person events, where people will have a chance to hear about what we’ve done, ask questions and connect. Dates will be announced as soon as possible!
• Case studies, showcase report and legacy website – We want to ensure that our work is captured and signposted in support of future work. We’ll be producing a series of case studies that will be available through a public-facing report and through our legacy website, which will go live in the months following the formal end of the project in March.
  
  
• Strengthening networks – we are keen to collaborate! If you’re interested in any of our work, please get in touch and we’ll point you in the right direction. And look out for local celebration events from each partner, geared at sharing HCWP progress and next steps with volunteers, collaborators and local communities.

In the meantime, you can learn more about the work of the Highland Community Waste Partnership on our website.