Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority (GMWDA) and the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) have established a partnership in an attempt to drive up recycling and prevent waste across the conurbation. The Resource Greater Manchester (RGM) partnership will provide a strategic programme of work to help Greater Manchester achieve its ambitions towards zero waste.  Areas of focus for the partnership will include increasing food waste capture and the quality of recycling, as well as achieving a more consistent approach to household collections across Greater Manchester’s nine districts. To this end RGM will be providing localised information and support for the different districts – Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside and Trafford. Through the partnership, the Greater Manchester conurbation will utilise outputs from a regional version of WRAP’s recycling behaviours tracker. It will also be one of the first areas to use a regionalised version of Recycle Now’s new recycling segmentation model, where, based on values, attitudes and behaviours, households may be given information and advice specifically suited to their needs.  RGM will also be delivering a project focusing on a road map to 60 per cent recycling. This work will analyse and model waste and recycling data from across the nine district councils to determine and recommend the best way Greater Manchester can achieve its target of 60 per cent recycling by 2025.  The constituent districts serve more than one million households and handle around four per cent of all waste produced in England. In 2015/16, GMWDA’s overall recycling and composting rate was 40.85 per cent, against a target of 43 per cent, which represented a very slight drop on the previous year’s rate of 41.04 per cent. In 2016, following revelations that the GMWDA was expected to overspend on its budget by £2.5 million (put down to ‘the limited functioning of the anaerobic digestion part of the residual waste system’), Manchester City Council approved plans to ‘slimline’ bins in the city, while several of the constituent councils have in recent years targeted waste reduction through reduced residual waste collection frequency.

‘Sharing expertise, knowledge and relationships’

Councillor Nigel Murphy, Chair of GMWDA said: “We are delighted to be working in partnership with WRAP on this new venture which supports GMWDA’s vision of zero waste. By working together we can drive recycling and efficiencies whilst continuing to maintain a high standard of service. We look forward to continuing this partnership for many years to come.” Peter Maddox, Director of WRAP added: “WRAP is looking forward to working at a more local level with GMWDA and the nine district authorities. This is the second regional partnership WRAP has developed, and follows the successful launch of Resource London with the London Waste and Recycling Board (LWARB) in 2015. By sharing our expertise, knowledge and relationships we are confident that RGM can make a real impact on improving recycling rates and waste prevention across Greater Manchester.” More information is available on the GMWDA website.