Ms Harrison, the Conservative MP for Copeland, was appointed a Defra minister on 7 September after Liz Truss became prime minister (see letsrecycle.com story). Speculation abounds that she will have resources and waste management in her brief, although this is yet to be confirmed.
The GMCA runs the Hub, launched in July 2021, in partnership with Suez recycling and recovery UK (see letsrecycle.com story).
Items donated at Greater Manchester’s household waste recycling centres are refurbished at the Hub and then resold online and at three shops in Oldham, Salford and Trafford.
John Scanlon, Suez’s chief executive, said it was a “pleasure” to welcome Ms Harrison to the Renew Hub to show her how his company had worked with the GMCA to “take reuse to the next level”.
“By scaling up the operation for the city-region, we are optimising not only the environmental benefits of repair and reuse in support of Greater Manchester’s target of becoming carbon neutral by 2038, but also the wider economic and social benefits,” Mr Scanlon said.
“We’re helping to level up through skills training, new green jobs and by providing a reliable source of quality, pre-loved furniture, appliances and sports equipment at affordable prices.”
Manchester
Representing an estimated population of nearly 2.9 million, the GMCA had a household waste recycling rate of 47.7% in the 2020/21 financial year.
In 2019, Suez signed two five-year contracts, combined worth more than £1 billion, with the GMCA to manage waste from the region (see letsrecycle.com story).
Items weighing more than 500 tonnes have passed through the Hub since it first opened, Mr Scanlon said. He said they had sold 1,984 electronics, 953 bikes, 745 pieces of soft furniture and 5,287 items of hard furniture, “with proceeds going to local good causes across the nine districts that we work with in Greater Manchester.”
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