Waste
29.1 million tonnes of Municipal Solid Waste generated in 2003/04 in England.
It was disposed of through the following routes:
- 72% sent to landfill
- 19% sent for recycling/composting
- 9% sent for incineration/EfW
Many Local Authorities are currently achieving less than 30% recycling success and the figures above bear witness to that position.
UAL is currently able prove it is recycling 11% however this is likely to be slightly better in reality once all the processes are properly captured and analysed.
Currently UAL throws away over 2,600 plastic bin liners every day, the equivalent of over 592,000 every academic year!
Each one of these liners will take between 200 and 450 years to decompose!
UAL need to recycle more and the Estates team has installed a new robust recycling facility at each site to help us do so. The scheme will dramatically improve our recycling of everyday waste such as paper, cardboard, glass, tin and plastics, whilst a second stage will focus more on specialist recycling such as textiles, wood and ceramics.
The new recycling bins are easily identifiable, clearly labelled and sourced from manufacturers in the UK, which reduces the environmental impact of the product and reduces our own carbon footprint.
Please use green bins with clear liners for all clean paper, card, glass, tins, cans and plastic waste except polystyrene.
Please use the black bins with black liners for food waste, polystyrene, and crisp and confectionary wrappers please use
Your local Assistant Facilities Managers will be able to provide further details of the new scheme.
Battery Recycling
The Battery recycling facilities around UAL are only suitable for portable alkaline batteries (such as Duracell batteries for example, not mobile phone batteries). When your batteries run out and can not be recharged, bring them into your nearest battery recycling facility and they will be collected and recycled. NEVER THROW BATTERIES IN THE BIN.
Why recycle batteries?
“Recycling batteries is important for a number of reasons. Batteries can contain chemicals such as lead, mercury or cadmium. When you dispose of them with your normal rubbish, most will end up in landfill where the chemicals they contain may leak into the ground. This can pollute the soil and water and potentially harm human health.
Recycling also recovers some of the materials used to make batteries and these can be used again to make other products and potentially to make new batteries. Recycling can also save some of the earth’s natural resources and save on CO2 emissions by reducing the need to mine new materials.”
CRISP: Halls of Accomodation Recycling and Reuse Project
Over the 2010 summer period, Furzedown and Cedars Hall participated in the London Hall of Residence Reuse Scheme that is conducted by the charitable organisation CRISP (Community Recycling In Southwark Project).
As we all know, at the end of the academic year students living in halls of residence move out to out of their accommodation and often leave behind a wide variety of personal items such as clothes, bedding, kitchen equipment, books and electrical goods, which they either no longer have a use for or which they cannot transport to their new homes.
CRISP’s Reuse project provided Furzedown and Cedars Halls with collection boxes that were placed in a communal area. Students could then donate unwanted goods and items in order that they could then be processed for reuse and/or recycling, thereby preventing valuable resources being sent to landfill and ensuring the maximum social, environmental and economic benefit from reuse. Students donated materials such as clothes, shoes, duvets, kitchen equipment, CD’s, books, furniture, household electrical items, IT equipment and non perishable foodstuffs.
Over the months of June and July 2010 the project collected 0.47 tonnes (470kgs) of unwanted goods and materials for reuse. The vast majority of these unwanted goods and materials were diverted for reuse 0.370 tonnes (78.8%) while 0.085 tonnes (18.0%) was recycled with the remaining 0.015 tonnes (3.2%) had to be landfilled. Using the WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) multipliers to calculate the reduction in CO2 (e) this resulted in a total of 5.00 tonnes of CO2 (e) saved by the project, an equivalent of 15.3kgs per student.
This was a popular scheme for the staff and students, showing a firm commitment to sustainable practices by University of the Arts, Housing Services. Our thanks go to the students for supplying their unwanted items, the halls staff who managed the collection boxes and Dr. Richard Anderson from CRISP.
Read more at www.crispej.org.uk/hallsreusescheme.htm
TRAID Textile Recycling Bins
Housing Services appreciate that many students who live in halls of residence have a considerable amount of textile waste throughout the year, be that old / unwanted items of clothing through to waste cloth / materials from their college courses. Due to the high quantity of textiles that were being thrown away or being hauled to charity shops it was felt that a service should be introduced to make this process easier and more sustainable for the students. Housing Services thereby made contact with the charity TRAID (Textile Recycling for Aid and International Development) who were known for their innovative and creative reuse of old clothing / textiles through their retail outlets. Out of all of the charities that accept and process 2nd hand textiles, it was felt that TRAID’s approach was more in line with our student’s outlook. TRAID were keen to tap into this source of donations and agreed to provide and manage recycling bins for each of the University’s halls of residence. Since September 2009 all University Halls have had a TRAID bin in a communal area. The students regularly fill them up with unwanted textiles and they are a popular addition to the service we provide.
Read more at: www.traid.org.uk