The bold plan to end waste in Greater Manchester - and how you can play your part

An ambitious plan to end waste in Greater Manchester has been signed off by local leaders. Greater Manchester Combined Authority has approved the bold strategy - known as the Sustainable Consumption Plan (SCP) - which backs up the region’s five-year environment plan.

The SCP highlights the need for businesses to reuse and recycle more materials and also aims to empower residents to make lifestyle choices that will help the region achieve its ambition of becoming carbon neutral by 2038. Councillor Neil Emmott, the combined authority’s environment chief, said it was time waste was seen as ‘a design flaw, not part of the process’.

“This means changing how products are made and used in our city region,” he said in a statement after the GMCA green-lit the plan at a meeting on Friday morning. "The public sector can support this by changing the way we buy goods and services, but we need other consumers and producers to play their part. This plan gives us a framework to work together on making system-wide changes, beginning with a focus on food, plastics and textiles.”

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Coun Emmott explained that a ‘huge part’ of the strategy was supporting businesses to work together and create less waste without impacting on their success. This, he said, would involve firms moving away from the ‘make, use, dispose’ model and instead replacing the use of scarce resources with ‘fully renewable, recyclable or biodegradable materials’.

But the Rochdale council leader also noted the need to dramatically cut down on household food waste. “We all have a part to play in making the changes we need so, as a city region, we are more resilient and are living more sustainably and we’ll continue to