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Campaigners say compost is an essential solution for COP26 leaders to reach net zero
Springfield Agri and compostable packaging company , TIPA , are calling on leaders to make capturing and composting food waste a priority to help restore soils and capture harmful carbon from the atmosphere .
Springfield Agri and TIPA collaborated at COP26 to show the role packaging choices in the food industry have on maintaining and improving soil quality . by 0.4 % every year , the rising concentration of CO 2 in the atmosphere could be halted .
Exhibiting to world leaders , the partnership presented compostable packaging as a ' critical tool with a dual purpose ': prolonging the life of food as it is transported to retailers and stored by consumers and later carrying any waste back to composting .
Compostable packaging helps to recover food waste , whereas conventional plastic harms food waste collections by contaminating composting processes and leaving microplastics in soil .
Daphna Nissenbaum , Co-founder and CEO of TIPA , said : " Compostable packaging can help consumers and governments alike meet this challenge by carrying more food waste into the composting process without contaminating the soil as plastics do .”
Microplastics interact with soil fauna with earthworms having been shown to make their burrows differently when microplastics are present , affecting their fitness and – in consequence – soil health . The composting process returns nutrients – including carbon – back to soil . If the carbon stored in soil were increased
Welsh start-up attracting record levels of investment
High growth start-ups and scale-ups are attracting record levels of investment in Wales , according to a landmark new report released by Beauhurst , the research platform , and sponsored by the Development Bank of Wales , an active investor in the UK .
Investment into Welsh businesses has been steadily increasing in recent years . Welsh start-ups and scale-ups secured £ 129 million in 2020 , which was a record for the country . Beyond high growth companies , a record number of businesses were incorporated in Wales that year – 19,453 .
The resilience of Welsh businesses during the pandemic was strengthened by the COVID-19 Wales Business Loan Scheme , which saw the Development Bank of Wales delivering £ 92 million in additional loans to Welsh companies .
The research suggests that Wales is becoming a springboard for a new generation of high growth companies .
While data suggests that the UK is experiencing a steady decline in early-stage funding for start-ups , the average deal size for Welsh companies in 2020 was £ 939,000 .
Since 2011 , a third ( 466 ) of deals have been secured by Welsh companies raising investment for the first time .
The comprehensive study of Welsh investment activity between 2011 and 2020 identified 1,215 high growth companies in Wales , which have raised £ 882 million across 1,201 deals over the last 10 years .
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