Working with the Community Sector
Our main form of support to the community sector has been through providing free tipping permits, reuse and recycling credits to nearly 120 community groups. We also work in close partnerships with groups on specific projects and initiatives.
EMERGE wants you to be a Zero Waste Champion!
Environmental charity EMERGE is encouraging residents of Greater Manchester to become Zero Waste Champions and take the Zero Waste Challenge.
If you have a passion for the environment, recycling and reducing waste going to landfill, this is the challenge for you!
We are searching for individuals or groups of people who will try to reduce the amount of waste they throw away to as close to ZERO as possible…in one month! It may sound like a daunting task, but with the help and support of EMERGE, it will be an interesting experience that may have you rethinking your daily habits forever!
Lu Yang from Manchester has managed to reduce her household waste to just 0.4kg per week. Lu says “I learnt a lot about where to recycle things like plastics bags, batteries and clothes… We will definitely carry on with the many new good habits we have developed through the challenge, such as shopping at local shops where packaging is minimal and planning our meals so we use up the food we buy.”
Nigel Holmes from Bury maintains that reducing your waste is good for your bank balance and body as well as for the environment, “Having done the Zero Waste Challenge this month and with the support of Emerge our family of four is now down to 1 carrier bag of residual waste per week. I enjoyed the challenge, saved money and ate more healthily as a result. It's a winner every way you look at it.”
EMERGE has delivered Zero Waste induction sessions for young people from Manchester and Salford taking part in Manchester Youth Volunteering Project’s Eco Challenge Xtra. The young people were given a tour of EMERGE’s recycling depot and played the Slim Your Bin game to find out how they can recycle their waste correctly. As a result of the session the group will ensure all the waste is recycled at the eco-event they are organising at Platt Fields Park.
The new Volunteer Project Assistants from Groundwork Oldham and Rochdale have visited EMERGE’s recycling depot to find out what happens to materials that are sent for recycling and how they can reduce the amount of waste they sent to landfill or incineration. The team plan on completing the Zero Waste Challenge in their own homes and then working together as a team and using their new found knowledge to influence people in their local community to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.
If you’re up for the challenge here’s where you can find out more: www.emergemanchester.co.uk
Contact Nicola at EMERGE to register your interest and book a place:
T: 0161 223 8200
E: volunteering@emergemanchester.co.uk
Working with the Community Sector to make re-use easier
We recognise that the easier it is to recycle and reuse items the more people will take part. We are working with two community based furniture reuse projects to develop two new community initiatives that will help residents increase the re-use of unwanted furniture.
In March 2010 we set up our first furniture re-use container at Lumns Lane HWRC, Salford, it was the first of two pilot projects and in May we opened the second at Arkwright Street HWRC in Oldham. The pilots have proved very successful and we plan to contunue to provide furniture re-use containers on both sites. We now have four more furniture re-use schemes in operation at the following sites: Hurstwood Court HWRC in Bolton, Sinderland Road HWRC in Trafford, Chichester Street HWRC in Rochdale and Longley Lane HWRC in Manchester. The scheme at Bayley Street HWRC in Tameside will start soon.
Owing to the space needed for containers and vehicles it will not be possible to accomodate this scheme at all of our HWRCs, but the plan is to get as many schemes as possible up and running by 2012.
For more information, please see the press releases page.
Community Swap Days
We want to encourage more local groups to run their own Community Swap Days and we can offer advice on how to get it going. There are other activities which can be easily set up and run locally, including a clothes swap event. If you have ideas for waste reduction or minimisation, then please get in touch with us and we will see how we can help you.
WEEE Re-use (Waste Electrical & Electronic Equipment)
Each year in Greater Manchester tonnes of Waste Electronic Equipment (WEEE), e.g. washing machines and electric cookers are recycled as scrap metal; some of which will be in good working order and could be refurbished for re-use. There are currently two WEEE re-use pilot schemes in Greater Manchester, one at Hurstwood Court Household Waste Recycling Centre (HWRCs) in Bolton and the other at Woodhouse Lane Household Waste Recycling Centre in Trafford. The schemes are delivered in partnership with CREATE a charity and social enterprise. For more information please see the following press release: Greater Manchester’s new pilot reuse scheme spins into action as old washing machines are collected and refurbished!
Recycle Your Bike
Are you or your children getting a new bike?
Then why not donate your old one to a community bike project in your area that will either repair or recycle your old bike, providing employment and skills to local people. To find your nearest bike project please visit www.recycleforgreatermanchester.com/community/bike-reuse-and-recycling-project.
In response to calls from community organisations wanting to take bikes from our HWRC’s for reuse and recycling, we decided to launch a campaign that would encourage the public to consider donating unwanted bikes for reuse rather then bringing them to our HWRC’s as waste.
We launched the Recycle Your Bicycle campaign during National Bike Week 2010 (19-27th July). Road shows were run in conjunction with Districts’ bike week activities; led bikes, festivals and mountain bike trails.
The campaign highlighted that there are alternatives to taking their unwanted bikes to the HWRC, as there are a growing number of groups and projects in Greater Manchester that will take bikes for reuse. Many of them use bike refurbishment and maintenance training as a positive distraction for young people, support for people with mental health issues or just providing affordable bikes to local people. We have set up an online database which contains bike reuse projects in Greater Manchester, so that residents can find a local project to take their unwanted bike.
