February 6 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's innovation ministry said it launched a public discussion of an EU-backed grant scheme of 180 million levs ($99.1 million/92 million euro) designed to support the transition to circular economy at local micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and large companies.
The funds, available to businesses in the manufacturing or processing industry, will allow successful applicants to implement production equipment that will reduce waste and resources for its disposal while making new products from the residual materials, the ministry said in a press release last week.
The financing will be provided under Bulgaria's Recovery and Resilience Plan and will depend on enterprise size, with grants varying from up to 350,000 levs for micro enterprises to up to 1 million levs for large companies, with a co-financing element of up to 50% of the total individual project cost.
The scheme aims to introduce climate-neutral approaches and technologies for the production and consumption of companies' output. The measure will help limit the use of plastic packaging and single-use plastic products by producing more reusable ones. Public comments are to be submitted by March 2.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)