Who has the smallest bin in town? Manchester primary and secondary schools to be awarded for cutting their bins in rubbish-diet.

As part of ‘Zero Waste Week’, thirteen schools from across the Manchester local authority have been working hard to slim their school bins for the past few weeks. This competition is the first of its kind in Manchester and was organised by environmental charity EMERGE 3Rs to encourage schools to combat their waste. As the challenge is nearly over, it is time to identify the school that has reduced its waste the most, and to congratulate the schools, staff and pupils who have taken part in this Manchester-wide rubbish diet. The winners will be announced at the official award ceremony taking place on Tuesday 13th of July from 10.00am to 11.30 at the Friends’ Meeting House behind the Manchester Central Library.

“We feel that with this challenge we have added a fun twist to a rather serious topic”, says Vicki Leng of EMERGE, who is one of the creative heads behind ‘Zero Waste Week’. “It also offered an opportunity for staff and pupils to understand how their use and disposal of resources has an environmental impact. Even small changes can make a difference and anyone can do their bit in tackling climate change by paying more attention to their own behaviour,” adds Leng.

Starting from May 10th, participating schools had only six weeks until Zero Waste Week – the week commencing the 28th of June – to turn their heavy bins into lightweights by reducing the amount of waste they produce. Participating schools were provided with online resources of the 3Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle), each week in the countdown focused on a different waste issue.

“In order to see how much waste schools have reduced, we have weighed bins before the seven-week competition and during Zero Waste Week,” explains Vicki Leng. The winners can expect to receive fabulous ‘green’ prizes such as a free school recycling collection for a year. The prizes were sponsored by EMERGE, Bike Right, the Edinburgh Cycle Co-operative, Bridgewater Hall, Challenge 4 Change, Viridor Laing, SCRIB and the Big Lottery.

For information about Zero Waste Week, just email us: office@emergemanchester.co.uk.

Have a great week,
the EMERGE team.