£62 million to buy wooden bottles from taxpayers – Watt?

No one knows

Paul Homewood

H/T Ian Magness

This is just taxpayer’s money!

From the Telegram:

UK National Wealth FundThe Treasury fully owned, announced a £43.5 million investment in Cambridgeshire’s startup pulp on Wednesday, which makes recyclable water bottles stand out from the wood pulp.

The investment will help fund Pulpex's plan to establish its first manufacturing plant near Glasgow, which is expected to produce 50 million wood bottles a year and create 35 jobs in Scotland.

The carbon footprint of wood-based bottles is more than plastic or glass and Scottish secretary Ian Murray said the investment will “help our packaging industry decarbonize and push cleaning before 2030 Energy delivery helps accelerate net zero targets.”

The Scottish National Investment Bank, which is fully owned by the Scottish government, will invest £10 million with the National Wealth Fund and hope to raise £62 million.

Prime Minister Rachel Reeves called the investment “welcome news” and the investment is “to create jobs, sustainable development and opportunities in Scotland”.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/02/19/taxpayer-cash-ploughed-wooden-bottles-labours-labours-net-zero

For some reason, the Telegraph sees it as a serious idea rather than a waste of taxpayer money.

£62 million in 35 jobs? Nearly £2 million per job. This is really crazy.

Pulpex will need to cut down many trees, which will cause greater damage to the environment, with a little CO2 from glass or plastic.

Anyway, the whole idea is flawed – who would actually bother recycling these wooden bottles?

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