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A ‘business-to-business’ circular economy platform is one of the measures in the pipeline as part of Greater Manchester’s new Sustainable Consumption Plan (SCP) to create a ‘waste-free’ city region.

The SCP, approved by Greater Manchester Combined Authority in June, aims to move Greater Manchester’s businesses to a model that is more reliant on reusing and recycling materials, and to empower residents to make more sustainable lifestyle choices, focusing on four priorities:

  • Moving to a circular economy
  • Managing waste sustainably
  • Reducing food waste
  • Moving to sustainable lifestyles.

Cllr Neil Emmott, GMCA lead for green city region and waste & recycling, said: “As our society faces more economic pressures, we need to help people and businesses reduce avoidable waste, which can also reduce bills.

“We need to keep products and materials in use for longer to reduce pressure on the environment. Globally, we currently extract three times the number of natural resources than we did over 30 years ago. This figure is also expected to more than double by 2060 if we don’t make significant changes now.”

‘Business-to-business’ platform

The plan highlights a need for industries to produce more sustainable products that are in use for longer and help businesses and residents move away from a ‘throw away’ society.

To support this, GMCA is committing to working with partners to drive innovation in the city region, exploring ways to help businesses with this change in culture. This will involve creating a ‘business-to-business’ platform which will bring organisations together to find new ways of working to eliminate waste – starting with the textiles industry.

‘Businesses working together’

“We need to see waste as a design flaw, not part of the process,” Cllr Emmott continued. “This means changing how products are made and used in our city region. 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.

“A huge part of this is supporting our region’s businesses to operate in a way that causes the least amount of waste without impacting their success; moving away from the make, use, dispose model and instead adopting an approach of replacing the use of scarce resources with fully renewable, recyclable or biodegradable materials. This needs to involve businesses working together to find the best ways of doing this within their industry.”

Communicating with businesses and residents

The SCP will also look at where waste is coming from throughout the city region, both from households and businesses, and use the data to help change business models and behaviours.

Communications and marketing campaigns – supported by the city region’s GM Green Cities website – will also be delivered to educate, raise awareness and encourage people to make more sustainable life choices. An annual implementation plan will now be developed and agreed by a Challenge Group of public, private, third sector and academic partners, reporting in to GMCA’s Green City Region Partnership.

Young People Recycling Gettyimages 670719454

We need to keep products and materials in use for longer to reduce pressure on the environment. Globally, we currently extract three times the number of natural resources than we did over 30 years ago. This figure is also expected to more than double by 2060 if we don’t make significant changes now.

Cllr Neil Emmott, GMCA lead for green city region and waste & recycling

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