Viridor Laing unveils food waste campaign for Manchester

In conjunction with the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) and the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority (GMWDA), Viridor Laing began working last Tuesday (April 22) with 10 local authority districts.

The launch was marked by an event including a left-overs' cookery demonstration from local celebrity chef Andrew Nutter, and this kicked off a two-week food diary challenge with 11 families in Greater Manchester seeking to reduce their food waste and to think about the amount of food they both buy and throw away.

Viridor Laing is supporting the delivery of WRAP's 'Love Food Hate Waste' Campaign in the regio,n which includes: bus and radio advertising; promotional material; billboards; and, sponsorship of the Manchester Food and Drink Festival, which will be themed around sustainability and reducing food waste.

As well as supporting the coordination of road shows and dissemination of information across the districts, the contractor is liaising with both Groundwork NorthWest and the Co-operative on how to best work together to find ways of promoting Love Food Hate Waste to communities across Greater Manchester and provide residents with hints and tips to reduce their food waste.  

The big finale is set to be the sponsortship of the 12 day Manchester Food and Drink Festival in October to promote a reduction in food waste and working with the community voluntary sector to reduce the environmental impact of the festival and make it more sustainable.  

As well as community engagement, Viridor Laing, together with the waste authority and WRAP, are now concentrating on developing the look and feel of the sponsorship for the Food and Drink Festival to create a lasting impact on residents.

Viridor Laing has integrated the campaign into its overall five-year waste prevention and education plan and will be developing and delivering other waste prevention services for the waste authority, as well as providing a coordinated approach to waste prevention to the districts in Greater Manchester over the coming year.

Sheridan Hilton, waste prevention manager for the contractor said: “We are pleased to have been able to work in partnership on this campaign prior to closing the contract which means we can now start to deliver our Waste Prevention priorities from day one. The Love Food Hate Waste Campaign is a great start to the waste prevention message for Greater Manchester and we look forward to building on its success.”

Councillor Neil Swannick, chair of the GMWDA: “We recognise that the results of the first year are encouraging, there is much more that we in Greater Manchester can do and we are confident we can continue to support the growing number of households cutting back this waste.”