Home Composting Takes to the Streets for Manchester's Gay and Lesbian Festival

Created by Manchester City Council’s Waste and Recycling team and local partners, the float was built on to the base of a recycling collection vehicle, where staff, dressed in flamboyant “composting” hats, containing decorative fruit, vegetables, foliage, newspaper and cardboard, used compost bins as drums to entertain the crowds.

The float also displayed banners with website details for information about home composting and other recycling issues.

This was the first time that Manchester City Council and its partners had used Manchester Pride as a platform for educating the public about the importance of home composting.

They felt the event presented an ideal opportunity to embrace Manchester’s diverse population whilst raising awareness of home composting and recycling issues among the thousands of people in the city and surrounding area who watch the event.

Neil Swannick Manchester City Council’s Executive Member for the Environment, said: “Home composting and recycling is something that everyone can do and this is a message that we want to communicate to all sectors of the community.

“Manchester Pride gave us an ideal opportunity to reach out to hundreds of people including Manchester’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender residents, to promote home composting in a fun and accessible way.

The float was created by Manchester City Council in conjunction with the local home composting advisor for the national Recycle Now Home Composting Campaign, the GLOSS (Gorton Leads On Sustainability Strategy) Project run by Debdale Eco Centre, Fairfield Materials Management and Greater Manchester Waste (Manchester Collections) Ltd.