EMERGE Recycling is a social enterprise founded on the principles of sustainable resource management, social value and quality service. We are a licensed waste carrier and our specialist treatment infrastructure means that we are able to cater to customers with greater waste management needs, including all business waste, confidential shredding, food waste and waste electrical equipment. We endeavour to manage waste in the most resource efficient way possible and to promote our ethos of the real 3Rs: ‘Reduce, Re-use, Recycle’.

We have a proud history and have been operating in East Manchester since we started as a community business in 1996. Since then, the EMERGE Family has grown and now comprises of EMERGE Recycling and EMERGE 3Rs as two separate legal entities operating from our site on New Smithfield Market. EMERGE 3Rs is an environmental charity which promotes the idea and practice of resource conservation, and also operates FareShare Greater Manchester, which helps to alleviate food waste and fight food poverty. It also runs the Give & Gain Volunteering and Employability Programme. The two entities work collaboratively, with EMERGE Recycling utilising some its profits to achieve their shared vision. So, in becoming our customer you will also be helping people in need, as well as tackling climate change!

Over the past 24 years we have supplied waste management services to a wide variety of customers, including businesses, schools and universities, charities and social enterprises, the NHS and local government. We are fully accredited with ISO 9001: 2015, BS EN 15713 (covering paper documents as well as IT equipment), SafeContractor, OTC operator licence and we hold a T11 Exemption. In addition to our general recycling services, we also operate reclaimed timber collections and a wood upcycling initiative, Touch Wood; in our shop we upcycle waste wood for sale to the public and train volunteers and work placements to create bespoke products.

EMERGE provides the full range of waste, recycling and confidential shredding services to businesses and schools, and promotes sustainable resource management by offering advice, information and educational services within the wider community.

EMERGE Recycling is a licensed waste carrier, registered with the Environment Agency and possessing several waste operation permits. We are a social enterprise, operating within EMERGE 3Rs, a registered charity which promotes sustainable resource management through the 3Rs ethos of (‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’), aimed at reducing Manchester’s carbon footprint. We are a Registered Treatment Facility for WEEE and hold a T11 Exemption.

Operating from our secure Manchester site on New Smithfield Market in Openshaw, we have over 20 years’ experience supplying waste management services and recycling to a wide variety of customers, including businesses, schools, charities, the NHS and local government. We are fully accredited with ISO 9001: 2015, BS EN 15713, SafeContractor and an OTC operator licence. To find out more about our documentation, please see our Compliance page.

In addition to offering recycling services, our parent charity EMERGE 3Rs has under its umbrella a reclaimed timber workshop, Touch Wood, which specialises in  waste wood, timber re-use and upcycling, as well as the Greater Manchester operations of national charity FareShare, which accepts donated, in-date surplus food and redistributes it to over 200 frontline charities and humanitarian initiatives across the city region.

Income from our recycling services funds the work of EMERGE 3Rs, so in becoming our customer you will also be helping people in need, as well as tackling climate change!