Dig in for Garden Prizes

Are you green fingered or want to be? Then help is at hand. Get composting with us and be in with a chance of winning a bin and £100 of garden centre vouchers.

That’s not all we are also offering FREE composting classes at the Debdale Eco Centre on Hyde Road, Gorton, on May 12th. The classes are aimed at composting beginners and families.

Thought it couldn’t get any better, you even get a yummy FREE lunch. So why not join us.

There are 2 classes:

10.00 – 12.30  Beginners composting class (aimed at adults)

12.30 – 13.15  Lunch for both classes

13.15 – 15.00  Family Composting – a fun activities based class for all the family to get involved in making and using compost.

Call Karen Hall on 0161 770 1712 or email communications@recycleforgreatermanchester.com to book you FREE place. Spaces are limited, so call early to avoid disappointment!

Can’t make the class, but want some expert advice then pop along to one of district Composting Road-shows, we have three in Greater Manchester

• Wednesday 9th May Ashton under Lyne market 10-3
• Thursday 10th May Bolton Town Centre, Victoria Square 10-3
• Saturday 12th May Oldham Town Centre, (opposite Spindles shopping centre) 10-3

Anyone who books a place at the classes, visits a road-show or goes on our composting pages to find out more will be in with the chance to WIN the great prizes on offer.

What are you waiting for Get Composting – it’s cheap, environmentally friendly and easier than ever!

Win an ipad 2

How exciting, we at Recycle for Greater Manchester have teamed up with Capital FM to further promote Spikey says…Stick it in the right bin.

Hopefully by now you should be recycling right but to make sure we have launched a radio campaign to spread the message even further. Let us know if you tune into Capital FM and have heard our Stick it in the right bin messages. We want everyone in Greater Manchester to put the right items in their mixed recycling bin, so recycling is more efficient!

Did You Know?

• You can also recycle your foil and aerosols in your mixed recycling.
• You can recycle more by recycling items from upstairs and downstairs, including shampoo and shower gel bottles from your bathroom and aerosols from your bedroom.
• You can only put bottle shaped plastic into your mixed recycling.

See the picture below for all the RIGHT items you can stick in your mixed recycling bin at home:

Want to WIN?

To be in with a chance of winning an Apple iPad 2 with Wi-Fi + 3G 16GB just watch our superb recycle right video and answer the simple recycling question on Capital FM WIN page.

The competition ends  Sunday 11th September.

Neighbours go head to head in the Stockport Street Challenge

For Recycle Week, Recycle for Greater Manchester and Stockport MBC decided to put residents to the challenge – a Street Recycling Challenge.

In Stockport since we gave almost all households a set of wheelie bins everybody has been recycling more, but there are still recyclables sneaking into refuse bins. Sometimes people aren’t sure which bin it can go in so it ends up in the refuse bin.

It’s also a case of changing long formed habits such as scraping the leftovers off dinner plates into the food caddy which will then be recycled instead of into the refuse bin.

What better way to encourage behaviour change and recycling than a bit of friendly rivalry. Plus an added incentive of a £20 shopping voucher for each winning household, all the residents I spoke to thought it was definitely worth a go!

40 houses on Neston Grove and Rostherne Road are currently going head to head to recycle as much as they can, using their blue, brown and green wheelie bins by the 30^th June. Believe me every bit of recycling really does count.

Did you know that aluminium foil can be recycled with your cans and tins? And Tetrapaks, that’s juice or beverage cartons to you and I, can be recycled with your paper and cardboard? 

Early indications showed Neston Grove to be just in the lead by 3 wheelie bins. That’s about two mown lawns, 100 2 pint plastic milk bottles (washed and squashed!), and 2 full sacks of mail.

Each street is keen to win, and residents are searching the cupboards under the sink for empty cleaning bottles, and clearing out bathroom cabinets of used aerosols. I’ve got a collection of empty shoe boxes if anyone is interested…….

I’ll be sitting in  my office waiting for the rush! Keep checking back for the final results…..

Written by Eleri Jones – Community Recycling Officer, Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council

Phew what a week!

Recycle Week has gone down a storm this year and it’s all thanks to you, with 498 people from all over Greater Manchester pledging to Recycle more at their local events and HWRCs, via post and online.

But it’s not over yet, there is still a week left to pledge. The prize draw closes on July 3rd, so get pledging today to be in with a chance to win £100 of shopping vouchers for all the top high street shops! We want to get at least a1,000 and that’s not much to ask with a population of 2.6 million!

Hopefully you have all been recycling Away as well as at Home this week, I will be reporting on the HWRC figures for recycling rates and landfill diversion on a later blog spot to see how we got on during the week. Also want to know where you’re recycling goes then check out our new web feature, which dispels the myth that it all goes to far flung corners of the world.

We launched our schools assembly competition – ‘Sort it out, Share and Shout’ with a fantastic prize of £4,500 up for grabs and we have had a really positive response with schools signing up already, so if you have a child at school or work at a school don’t waste your chance sign up today.

The events have been well received with people signing up to get their new food waste caddies and compostable liners from Salford Council and Rochdale residents signing up for the new blue bin for paper and card waste. There are still events going on too in Bolton, Bury Rochdale and Salford. There are lots of freebies at the event which all aim to help you to recycle more and waste less, so do check out our events calendar for more information on dates and times.

Also not forgetting Stockport Council have been busy knocking on residents doors and organising their Recycling Street Challenge, 2 streets will go head to head to see who can recycle more over the next week. More on the challenge to come so watch this space.

There has been lot’s in the news about Stockport’s new recycling service so I’m going to leave you with this impressive statistic, since rolling out their new recycling system, Stockport have increased their recycling rate to over 50 per cent and avoided landfill costs of almost £3m!!!

The blog is a new feature to our website, after this week it won’t be a daily update but we will try to blog when there is something interesting or exciting happening in the world or Recycling and waste prevention. So please do visit us again as we will be here and do leave your comments and share your tips and experiences with us as we would love to hear them.

Thanks again for a fantastic Recycle Week and see you soon