In November 2021, the government passed a new Environment Act, including targets to halve the waste that ends up at landfill or incineration by 2042.  Currently, UK households only recycle about 45.7% of their waste. Paper and cardboard are the most commonly recycled materials at a rate of 79%, followed by metal at 71.3%, and despite being endlessly recyclable, glass lags behind at a rate of 67.6%. For these, much of the recycling is carried out in the UK, which means that the material can be tracked throughout its waste processing journey. Plastic, by far the leas ..read more

Well, there goes another year, sure goes quick doesn't it? Time flies when you're having fun, and it's been another great year for EMERGE- we've just announced our acquisition of Green Reaper recycling, which is a huge leap forward towards growing our operations across the North West. Read more about this exciting piece of news here. We'd like to offer you our best wishes for the festive period, and a few top tips for avoiding the wastefulness that unfortunately is all too common at this time of year. 1. Get merry with as many friends and family as possible – it is much more efficient to hea ..read more

EMERGE works with the National Community Wood Recycling scheme collecting redundant wood from construction companies. We now provide a wood waste collection service across the North West and neighbouring area. We divert this precious resource from unsustainable disposal routes and create work and training opportunities for local disadvantaged people into the bargain. Our service is cheaper than normal skip hire and enables companies to reduce disposal costs, increase their recycling rates and enhance their green credentials. To find out more call us now on 0161 223 8200 or leah@emergem ..read more

In December 2012 the European Commission published a Manifesto for a Resource-Efficient Europe. In its opening line it stated that “in a world with growing pressures on resources and the environment, the EU has no choice but to go for the transition to a resource-efficient and ultimately regenerative circular economy”. Now, whatever your views are on the EU, you’d be hard pushed to criticise the basic philosophy behind that statement. But are there any downsides or major obstacles standing in the way of the actual creation of a circular economy? In other words, what are the potential sticking ..read more

Wednesday 16th October marks World Food Day, part of a growing number of international campaigns to tackle hunger worldwide. Food poverty is arguably humanity's weakest link in the 21st Century, and it's a growing problem even in The UK. According to new figures, the number of people relying on food banks in this country has TRIPLED in the last year. Emerge's sister charity FareShare North West tackles food poverty in Manchester by working with the commercial sector to divert perfectly edible food that would normally be sent to landfill to those who need it most, providing a double benefit. F ..read more

EMERGE is teaming up with the Every Can Counts programme this autumn to help local businesses increase the amount of beverage cans they recycle.  We'll be sending out details shortly of the official launch event - so keep an eye open for more news. Every Can Counts is an award-winning communications programme developed by the drinks can manufacturing and recycling industry. Over the past four years it has helped over 1000 businesses in the UK set up and run successful recycling initiatives. So, whether you’re looking to improve your existing recycli ..read more

Here at EMERGE we know a fair bit about food waste. Our sister charity, FareShare North West, combats food poverty (a growing issue not only in Greater Manchester but across the globe) by tapping into the huge amount of perfectly edible food from the commercial sector that would normally get sent to landfill because of excess product, damaged packaging and the like. Wasting food when it is so scarce for certain parts of society is a silly thing to be doing, but landfilling this waste brings about a whole host of environmental problems, particularly in relation to climate change. Decaying food ..read more

Did you know that your business could be liable for a fine of up to £500,000 if confidential information about customers, clients, service users or patients gets into the public domain, whether by accident or carelessness? Just this summer, one North West organisation has been fined £80,000 for leaving behind boxes of confidential personal information in a building that was being sold to a new occupier. The Information Commissioner will hand out hefty fines if there is evidence that your organisation has breached the Data Protection Act, knowingly or not. Now that so much data is stored in d ..read more

This weekend, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg will announce that a 5p tax on supermarket plastic bags should come into play in England by the end of 2015, bringing us in line with Wales and Northern Ireland, who already have a charge in place, and Scotland, where it will be introduced this time next year. Calls for plastic bag charges in England have been steadily increasing in recent months, and why not -  usage has dropped by up to 80% in Wales and Northern Ireland since charges were introduced. This can only mean good news for the environment.    The revenue from th ..read more

Further to our previous blog post on planned obsolescence this week, it's worth sharing this promotional video for Phonebloks, a novel concept for a new mobile phone which is engineered to be extensively repairable and upgradable- a phone built to last! It works on the premise of manufacturers collaborating together on an open platform to provide different replaceable 'bloks'. This in itself is clearly a huge barrier to the project, as it's always going to be difficult to get corporations to work together to provide a new product which is specifically designed to last - and therefore redu ..read more