A Women’s Environmental Network event with Debdale Eco Centre, for women and community groups passionate about growing food.

You can…

• meet other women who are growing food

• visit stalls, displays and taster sessions

• see presentations from local food growing projects

• receive free seeds!

• take part in compost and art workshops

• make your own beauty products

• enjoy a delicious vegetarian lunch

…plus

Visit Debdale Eco Centre

Booking and information
Contact Caroline Fernandez on carofern@dsl.pipex.com or call Women’s Environmental Network on 020 7481 9004. Also see www.wen.org.uk

Cost
The event is free. Donations welcome.

Access
The venue is wheelchair accessible. See also www.gortonmonastery.co.uk

Travel
The Angels, Gorton is 3 miles southeast of Manchester. Nearest station is Belle Vue. Best bus is 205 from Central Manchester. Plenty of parking for community minibuses.

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 hats, covered in decorative fruit and vegetables, used compost bins as drums to entertain the crowds.

Bunches of flowers, transported in pink wheelbarrows, were handed out to the many people who lined the streets to watch the colourful parade on August 25, which formed part of the entertainment for the 10-day festival.

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.

Fliss Paris, Environmental Awareness Officer for Manchester City Council’s Waste and Recycling Team, 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.

“Our float was very well received and generated lots of interest from the crowds. It is definitely something that we would consider doing again next year.”

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.

For further media information contact:

Helen Prowse (020 7440 2416) or Holly Smale (020 7440 2415)

3 Monkeys Communications
Email: Helen@3-monkeys.co.uk or Holly@3-monkeys.co.uk

or

Lynne Gunn (01295 819662)
WRAP
lynne.gunn@wrap.org.uk