A pioneering social business group, EMERGE 3Rs is a registered charity with trading arms social enterprise EMERGE Recycling. We exist to promote the idea and practice of the real ‘3Rs’ of waste reduction, reuse and recycling, and the wider concepts of resource efficiency and sustainable consumption. Grown from a voluntary initiative in 1996, “East Manchester Environment & Resources Group Emerge”, EMERGE continues to be based in the post-industrial heartlands of East Manchester on New Smithfield Wholesale Market. The group currently employs 33 local people and has over 50 regular volunteers and work placements. EMERGE 3Rs provides recycling and reuse services to businesses, schools and homes, and promotes sustainable resource management advice through information and education services within the wider community.

EMERGE 3Rs also runs the Greater Manchester branch of FareShare, a national charity fighting food poverty by tackling food waste, as well as Touch Wood, a timber recycling and reuse service which also provides work experience in woodwork upcycling and repurposing reclaimed timber.