Here at ÂãÁÄÖ±²¥, we acknowledge that whatÌýwe purchase and the waste we produce can have significant environmental, social and economic impacts. To reduce these impacts, we are committed to taking a sustainable approach to our purchasing activities.Ìý
Everything has value, and the resources we class as ‘waste’ have value too. A net-zero world will limit waste of any kind and with material resources that means following circular economy principles and the waste hierarchy:Ìýre-think, reduce, reuse, recycle,Ìýin all we doÌýfrom how we buy things to how we dispose of them.Ìý
Our focus is on reducing the overall volume of waste produced per person. We are tracking against a goal ofÌýkeepingÌýour campus waste produced to well below 20kg/FTE/yrÌý(non-constructionÌýand non-residential). In 22-23 we were at 14.07kg/FTE/yr students and staff. We think this is the best way to track waste as our goal should be waste reduction and not just percentage recycled, as we can't recycle our way out of crisis, we need to stop producing waste in the first place.
Recent actions we are taking to reduce amount of waste produced include our work to reduce the sale of single use plastics:
1) by encouraging students to refill their water bottles through our status as a '' with City to Sea. We have 45 brightly coloured water refill points across campus.
2) our innovative 'Returnable Cup Scheme' which reduces disposable coffee cup sales by offering a cup you can return to swap for a clean one or a token for next time. Disposable cups incur a 30p surcharge.
For construction waste we do target 95% of waste recycled which is a challenging target to encourage the maximum reuse and recycling in construction projects.Ìý
These actions have helped us to be ranked 1st in the worldÌýfor our contribution to SDG12: Responsible Consumption and ProductionÌýin the THE Impact Rankings 2024.
Please do email the Sustainability Team at Ìýif you have any questions about our waste management.