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.”
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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.
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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.
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“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
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Manchester Airport issues update for anyone flying today after hundreds of cancellations yesterday
Emily Sergeant
Manchester Airport has issued an update for anyone catching a flight today after hundreds of cancellations yesterday.
In case you hadn’t heard, hundreds of flights at several major UK airports – including Manchester Airport – were disrupted by a technical fault at air traffic control provider National Air Traffic Services (NATS) yesterday (8 September 2026), with the incident grounding planes and resulting in numerous cancellations.
According to Flightradar24, more than 1,000 flights were cancelled nationwide, and many passengers were told to expect disruption for the rest of the day.
One of the worst-affected airlines was said to be Ryanair, with around 65,000 passengers affected by the cancellations and delays.
Manchester Airport issued its first statement addressing the matter at 3:15pm yesterday, stating: “We are aware of an issue affecting NATS’ air traffic control service at UK airports, which may result in delays to some departing flights from Manchester Airport today.
“Passengers due to travel are advised to check the latest status of their flight with their airline. We will continue to monitor the situation and share further updates as more information becomes available.”
Now, although the issue has been resolved, Manchester Airport has issued further statements informing anyone travelling today what they can expect.
The airport started off by saying that it is ‘operating as normal’ today, but that passengers are advised to ‘check with their airline for the latest information’.
“A full flight schedule is expected to operate [today] but the airport may be busier due to rescheduled flights,” it added.
Passengers were then thanked for their ‘patience and understanding’ over the past 24 hours.
Featured Image – Ivan Shimko (via Unsplash)
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Hundreds of staff at four Greater Manchester hospitals to strike AGAIN next week
Emily Sergeant
Another round of strikes has been called at a handful of major Greater Manchester hospitals.
Amid ongoing disputes following the first set of strikes at the end of last month, it has now been announced that more than 350 Northern Care Alliance Foundation Trust (NCA) employees – including nurses, clinical support workers and housekeepers – who are members of the union UNISON will once again walk out for three days next week.
According to the union, the dispute centres on the NCA’s use of an outside agency called NHS Professionals (NHSP) to manage overtime.
When covering staff shortages, workers are entitled to time-and-a-half pay – however in some cases, staff earn less than they would on a normal shift, and some have even been missing out on more than £80 per shift, the union added.
Operating theatre staff were previously on picket lines in June, and although an option to resolve the row was initially tabled by NCA bosses, this has now fallen through.
Hundreds of staff at four of Greater Manchester’s hospitals are set to strike next week / Credit: Stephen Andrews (via Unsplash)
This means that staff at Salford Royal Hospital, Royal Oldham Hospital, Rochdale Infirmary, and Fairfield Hospital in Bury are walking out next week on Monday 14, Tuesday 15, and Thursday 17 September.
The union’s North West regional organiser, Kevin Dolan, said the trust had given ‘no indication’ that it’s willing to re-enter negotiations, adding that operating theatre services were ‘chronically under-staffed’ and staff were choosing to work extra shifts to cover shortages.
Ahead of the August strikes, the trust declared a critical incident to help it secure extra support and keep urgent surgery running, while also announcing that some procedures would have to be postponed.
Understandably, some disruption is expected at each of the hospitals on strike days.
But Gertie Nic Philib, who is the chief people and strategy officer at the Northern Care Alliance, said that the trust will do ‘everything we can to minimise the impact on patients’ and ‘maintain high standards of care and quality at all times.’
“We also have contingency plans in place for emergency situations,” they concluded.
Anna Willis -
4th June 2021 
