To mark the Greater Manchester Green Summit, 50 waste-busting volunteers from M&S walked from the Market Street store to Castlefield Bowl on 2nd April to help rid Manchester’s streets of litter as part of The Great British Spring Clean efforts taking place across the country.
Joined by local councillors and members of Keep Britain Tidy, volunteers collected 33 bags of waste found on the streets of Manchester, and separated out difficult to recycle plastic to take to the store’s Plastic Take Back bin located in the Market Street store – a recently launched initiative to prevent plastic waste from going to landfill by encouraging customers to return non-recycling plastic packaging to the store – where M&S will give the collected plastic a new life by recycling into store fittings, furniture and playground equipment.
Councillor Rabnawaz Akbar, Manchester City Council’s Executive Member for Neighbourhoods who joined the efforts on the day, said: “It’s been incredible to see so many people get into the spirit of things for this event, and to see so much rubbish successfully removed from our streets. We’re really grateful to everyone who volunteered their time, and to M&S for their commitment to help reduce plastic waste in our city. The Plastic Take Back Bins are a really powerful initiative with the ability to encourage real change and benefit our neighbourhoods, in particular for our younger generation to help them be more aware and responsible when it comes to recycling.”
The Great British Spring Clean by Keep Britain Tidy is taking place from 22 March – 23 April, to encourage communities, schools, families and businesses to come together and roll up their sleeves to collect and safely dispose of litter from streets, parks and benches, recycling as much as possible in the process.
Allison Ogden-Newton. Chief Executive Keep Britain Tidy: “We are delighted that staff from Marks & Spencer are taking to the streets to declare that litter is not acceptable – in Manchester or elsewhere! We hope this clean-up inspires not just Marks & Spencer employees to do more clean-ups during the Great British Spring Clean, but that the public will stand up and take notice!”
Jo Elliot, Store Manager for M&S Manchester Market Street, said: “It’s been fantastic to see colleagues and the community come together to help collect litter from the streets in Manchester. As we continue to work towards our plastic reduction goals, we want to go a step further and help our customers and the next generation to have a real impact on the environment.
