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Recycling rainbow with thousands of cans brightens up Piccadilly Gardens for World Environment Day

An international campaign wants you to recycle your drink cans this weekend.

Anna Willis Anna Willis - 4th June 2021

A giant rainbow made from over 2,500 drink cans has appeared in Piccadilly Gardens to promote recycling on World Environment Day this weekend.

Every Can Counts and Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) are encouraging everyone to recycle their drink cans in the 750 recycling bins across the city.

Reps are also traversing the streets with giant can-shaped backpacks, collecting empty drinks as part of the campaign.

“Our key message is that metal recycles for ever,” Every Can Counts rep Jordan Croft told The Manc.

“Recycling is such an important cause and one we’re all really passionate about.”

Every Can Counts reps with the rainbow

The multicoloured rainbow is made up of thousands of cans – celebrating key workers, the NHS and Pride. It’s travelled all the way from Brighton as part of Every Can Count’s international campaign to promote recycling.

For the weekend, Manchester City Council has installed special gold recycling bins across the city, reminding everyone to recycle their cans instead of throwing them away.

There are also two competitions to enter. Take a photo next to the rainbow and tag Every Can Counts on social media to be in with a chance to win £250 shopping vouchers. The reps will also be doing a short survey on recycling habits and by answering some questions you’ll be entered into a £100 prize draw.

According to Every Can Counts’ research, people in Greater Manchester fail to recycle nearly 1.5 million drink cans every year. If those cans were recycled, it would be the equivalent of taking almost 4,000 cars off Manchester’s roads for a week (in greenhouse gas savings).

Recycling bin allocated for drinks cans

“It’s all about inspiring people to do the right thing by raising awareness of recycling,” Every Can Count’s Programme Leader Chris Latham-Warde said.

“In conjunction with World Environment Day on Saturday, we thought it would be a great opportunity to get the rainbow out there, bringing some colour to Piccadilly Gardens.

“Everyone loves a symbol of positivity and there’s the message too that we all need to do the right thing and recycle.”

For more information about Every Can Counts, visit their website.

Featured images: Anna Willis

News

More than 100 ‘unsafe’ counterfeit Labubus seized in Oldham

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson 104 counterfeit Labubus have been seized

More than 100 counterfeit Labubus and accessories have been seized in Oldham, the council has announced.

The Labubu dolls – a plush collectible with giant smiles and bunny ears – have been seized because they are fake, and unsafe.

The haul of 104 Labubus has been given a street value of between £800 and £1000 – but if they were the real deal, they’d be worth more than three times as much.

The poorly-made figures were being sold for a fraction of the price of a real Labubu, which are manufactured by Chinese company Pop Mart (it’s set to open its second Manchester store in the Trafford Centre next week).

Oldham Council’s Trading Standards team said it seized the counterfeit Labubus from local businesses and found that they were unsafe and poorly made.

Officers raised concerns about the safety of the dolls, which had small parts such as eyes, hands and feet broke off easily, creating a choking hazard.

What a genuine Labubu should look like. Credit: The Hoot Leeds

They were also missing legally required safety marks such as the CE or UKCA labels, and lacked the name and address of a UK supplier, which is another legal requirement.

Councillor Elaine Taylor, Oldham Council’s Cabinet Member for Housing and Licensing, said: “Oldham Trading Standards carries out regular checks to help keep unsafe products off the shelves. In this case, these counterfeit toys failed safety standards and have now been removed from sale.

“We know it can be tempting to buy toys that look like a bargain, but parents need to be extra careful. Fake toys like these may be cheaper, but they can put children in real danger if they’re not made to strict safety standards.

“If anyone has concerns about toys they’ve purchased, or if they see unsafe products on sale locally, we’d encourage them to get in touch with Trading Standards through the Consumer Helpline on 0808 223 1133.”

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Featured image: Oldham Council

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Council publishes list of central Manchester roads set to be resurfaced this summer

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant

A list of roads in Manchester that are set to be resurfaced before the summer is out has been published.

Manchester City Council recently asked residents in the region what their priorities were for their community and what issues they wanted to see tackled – and for many, the answer was the quality of the road surfaces.

Since then, the Council says it has been ‘engaged’ in a long-running programme of improvement works throughout the borough.

Now, with just over a month of the summer season left, it has been confirmed that some vital resurfacing works are due to start over the coming weeks in north and central Manchester, bringing a range of improvements to key district roads along with it.

First up, from Saturday 9 August, Hollinwood Avenue is to be resurfaced.

The Council has published a list of Manchester roads that are set to be resurfaced this summer / Credit: MJ Richardson (via Geograph)

Anticipated to take six weeks to complete, this work will be carried out during weekend closures from 8am-5pm, with the road remaining open during the working week.

The closure area will be between Greengates Roundabout and the Oldham boundary at Owler Lane, and a signed diversion route will be in place while work is carried out, and access for residents will be maintained at all times. 

Then, starting from Saturday 16 August, resurfacing works will begin on Moss Lane East, between Alexandra Road and Princess Road. 

Work will take place between 7am and 5pm on weekdays, and 8am and 5pm on weekends, and during the works, the road will be completely closed – with a signed diversion route in place and access for residents maintained. 

As always, disruption is expected and the public is encouraged to plan ahead / Credit: Mylo Kaye (via Unsplash)

These works are expected to take six weeks to complete, and as with all resurfacing projects, residents should expect some disruption and may need to plan ahead.

The Council is aiming to keep disruption to the public at a minimum, where possible.

“We know how important it is to our residents that key roads are well maintained, which is why were glad to be able to deliver this latest round of improvement works,” commented Councillor Tracey Rawlins, who is the Executive Member for Clean Air, Environment, and Transport at Manchester City Council.

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“I’d like to thank people ahead of time for their patience during the course of these works and would advise them to check when closures will be in place and where the diversions are.”

You can find more information on the resurfacing works on the Council website here.

Featured Image – Pix4Free

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