Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) – the largest waste disposal authority in the UK – has extended their recycling and waste management contracts with SUEZ Recycling and Recovery UK until 2034.
The original seven-year contracts were signed in 2019, with the facility to extend by up to a further eight years from 2026.
These contracts were one of the first in the UK to place a strong emphasis on giving back to the community: creating apprenticeships, giving over £1m so far to local charity and to community groups pioneering innovative recycling and reuse schemes, as well as protecting the environment.
Social value, innovation and the environment at the heart of the project for five years
- 54 social value commitments within the contract: The GMCA took a bold approach to designing the tender for the contracts, with social value worth 15% of the marks (rather than a public sector procurement norm of 2-3%). This led to SUEZ developing 54 ‘social value commitments’ which have delivered wide-ranging social, environmental and economic benefits across Greater Manchester estimated to be worth over £1bn over the initial 7-year term of the contracts.
- The Renew Hub, an innovative reuse service: The first-of-its-kind Renew Hub and the network of Renew shops have diverted more than 260,000 individual items to reuse, raising more than £1million for good causes across Greater Manchester, including £100,000 a year to the Greater Manchester Mayor’s Charity, which tackles homelessness and rough sleeping in Greater Manchester.
- Recycling for Greater Manchester Community Fund: Every year since 2021, community projects for recycling and reuse can bid for a slice of £220,000 of funding, with the successful projects from the fourth round soon to be announced. These have ranged from baby clothes packages for new families and reused bikes for refugees to community cookery champions that turn food waste into free meals.
- Recycling Lives: A partnership with the social enterprise, Recycling Lives, who run the electrical repair pod at the Renew Hub in Trafford Park. This charity runs 8-week placements for people on probation to give them basic work skills in electricals, aiming to reduce homelessness and reoffending by supporting men and women into stable housing and employment. Household electrical items and white goods such as washing machines are donated at the recycling centres, brought to the Renew Hub where the Recycling Lives team repair them, and they are then sold to the public in the Renew shops or eBay shop. People who go through the programme are less likely to re-offend once they have learnt new skills and find employment, with an average of only 5% reoffending once completing the programme against a national rate of 25%. To date, through the Achieve programme, Recycling Lives have created 53 work placements for people on probation, 20 going into employment, seven with SUEZ in Greater Manchester.
- A strong contribution to local inclusion and education: With a focus on green skills, 38 apprenticeships have been created by the contract so far with roles including recycling operatives, welders, electricians and two new furniture restorers at the Renew Hub. SUEZ has led more than 60 events with schools and young people to educate them about recycling and reuse, while positioning the sector as an attractive future career option. The company has also supported 11 research projects with local colleges and universities.
- A proactive biodiversity conservation policy: Preserving nature is one of the pillars of SUEZ’s sustainable development roadmap, alongside social responsibility and action for climate. It forms part of the commitments within the contracts to put Greater Manchester’s waste to good use. In the first five years, SUEZ has planted 1,498 trees with City of Trees, donated over 350 tonnes of compost to community groups and has taken a range of actions to improve biodiversity across Greater Manchester’s waste sites.
- A significant increase in the recycling rate: The recycling rate across the authority’s 20 household waste recycling centres (HWRCs) has increased from 35% to 58% since 2019.
Pushing the boundaries on delivery
Caroline Simpson, group chief executive to GMCA, GMFRS and TFGM said: “It is good news for Greater Manchester residents that we have extended these waste management contracts. Under our unique devolution deal, we are making sure that these contracts push the boundaries on delivery of social value for the city region through public sector procurement, developing a model that is seen as best practice nationally.
“From creating jobs and apprenticeship opportunities to hundreds of thousands of pounds of funding for community projects every year, the last five years has seen a huge shift in waste management services that puts our residents at the very heart of them.
“Our partnership with SUEZ has also seen a significant improvement in performance with only 0.2% of waste going into landfill and HWRC recycling close to 60%. Waste management in the UK faces several challenges in the future from major policy reform and I have every confidence that GMCA and SUEZ are well placed to meet those challenges and to continue to provide excellent waste management services for our residents.”
Sabrina Soussan, chairman and CEO of SUEZ said: “We are delighted to extend our contract with GMCA, the UK’s largest waste disposal authority, to support them in their transition to a more circular economy. GMCA’s decision to strengthen its collaboration with SUEZ is a sign of the long-term trust we’ve built. It underlines SUEZ’s commitment to creating economic and social value for our customers, through innovative and resilient solutions.”
Councillor Tom Ross, GMCA’s lead for Green City-Region, said: “It is great to see our very successful contract with SUEZ extended, providing security for jobs and investing in Greater Manchester’s waste and recycling ambitions. We are very happy with what we have achieved with SUEZ, including our fantastic Renew Hub, and are excited for our plans going forward.”
Image: GMCA contract signing: (From left) John Scanlon, Caroline Simpson, David Taylor and Sabrina Soussan
