SUEZ donates £100,000 to Greater Manchester Mayor’s Charity

£50,000 will be donated to the charity’s Covaid-19 Appeal

£50,000 will support the ‘Bed for Every Night’ campaign

SUEZ recycling and recovery UK has made a £100,000 donation to the Greater Manchester Mayor’s Charity, providing a huge boost of support to vulnerable residents across the City region, including those who have been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.

£50,000 of the donation will be put immediately towards the charity’s urgent Covaid-19 Appeal, recently launched by Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham and the Manchester Evening News. Money raised through the appeal will help existing charities and voluntary organisations provide care, specialist support, and much-needed basics such as food parcels and toiletries to those most in need of extra support because of the pandemic.

The remaining £50,000 will be used later in the year to help the charity’s ‘A Bed for Every Night’ campaign which provides much-needed emergency shelter and support for homeless people across Greater Manchester over the winter.

Through its waste management contract with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, SUEZ has made a commitment to donate £100,000 to the Greater Manchester Mayor’s Charity every year. In future the donation will come from proceeds generated through a network of ‘re-use’ shops SUEZ is setting up in Greater Manchester later this year.

Through the shops unwanted items donated at Greater Manchester’s 20 household waste recycling centres will be sold to local residents, giving them access to affordable second-hand goods such as furniture, bicycles, crockery, tools and sports equipment.

Tim Heatley, Chair of the Greater Manchester Mayor’s Charity, said: “This is a moment of real challenge for a lot of people in Greater Manchester, and the Covaid-19 Emergency Appeal has seen so many  individuals and organisations right across our city-region pull together to support some of the most vulnerable in our community. This donation from SUEZ to the Mayor’s Charity is a great contribution to that effort, and one that I’m pleased to see them commit to every year through the proceeds from their re-use shops.”

John Scanlon, Chief Executive of SUEZ recycling and recovery UK, said, “Delivering social, economic and environmental benefits for the people of Greater Manchester is central to our work with GMCA, and I’m delighted to be making the first of SUEZ’s annual £100,000 donations to the Greater Manchester Mayor’s Fund. We’re in unprecedented times, and this money will make a real difference to people who need it urgently, such as rough sleepers, those fleeing domestic violence, and families struggling to make ends meet because of the impact of Covid-19.”

SUEZ is GMCA’s appointed waste management contractor, providing services for the management of over 1 million tonnes of municipal waste per year across nine metropolitan districts of Greater Manchester. SUEZ’s seven-year contract with GMCA began in June 2019.