Operations & maintenance

Waste Collection & Recycling Changes at the University of Bath

Some of you may have noticed changes occurring to the way waste is collected at the University, and others will notice the changes over the coming weeks.

The idea behind the move is to increase the level of recycling currently achieved at the University and at the same time reduce the amount of waste we need to dispose of and the associated cost of doing this.

The planning for these changes started 12 months ago when the Department of Estates and Accommodation and Hospitality Services jointly started to look at ways of encouraging more recycling and improving efficiency.

Why change?

The University wants, and needs, to improve its recycling levels – to help meet our overall carbon targets and to keep waste disposal costs down. The current statistics about our levels of waste do not make pretty reading and need to be tackled:

• Every week 300 x 1,100 litre bins of waste are generated at the University and go to landfill. This equates to:
  • 1,375 domestic wheelie bins per week
  • Three times the Founders Hall of landfill volume per year
  • 120,000 bin liners being used internally per year (excluding Student Accommodation).
  • 12,000 bin liners being used to collect external rubbish per year.
    
• We recycle only 11% of our total campus waste, putting us 91st out of 112 UK universities, and we were 57 th in the ‘Green League' in 2009.
  • Our peer universities recycled 30% of their waste in 2007/08
  • Bath Spa University and UWE are aiming at a target of 55% - 60% in 2009/10
    
• Disposal of our waste costs the University:
  • £131,000 per year under our current regime
  • £94,000 per year under our proposed regime
    

So what's changing?

Previously waste was collected from 15 locations around the campus, three times per week. We will now have only one collection per week from a new central location.

To aid this, the University has:

•  Invested £150,000 to make a new waste collection site at the South of the campus. This now combines all academic and accommodation waste into one location, and not only reduces the number of unsightly waste collection points, but ensures we benefit from an economy of scale.

•  We have increased the number of internal recycling points (Academic and Accommodation) around the whole campus. These will be increased further as the level of recycling increases. Staff are encouraged to make use of the new/additional recycling points for the disposal of plastic bottles, etc.

•  The focus on the main campus (Accommodation have communicated their recycling changes to the residents) is to initially take paper, cardboard & plastic bottles out of the waste stream, with other areas being targeted later.

To achieve this we will, over the next few weeks, remove as many waste bins from offices and general circulation areas as is reasonably practicable. Every office will have the option of a paper recycling bin, and will be provided with a ‘Jute' bag to hold an individual's rubbish. The responsibility for emptying the jute bag will be on the individual, either during or at the end of the working day, at the nearest general rubbish bin.

Trials on the above have been carried out within the Department of Estates since May 2009, and identical systems operate at other universities within the UK . Visits to those universities have shown that to change the attitude to recycling the most significant change is the removal of the general waste bins. If they are left, people say they will empty them and separate the waste, but in practice the significant change that is needed does not occur.

The other effects the trials have demonstrated are:

• As the level of recycling increases the level of general waste created by any one building will drop (even halve) in volume.
• Cleaners have a third more time to clean and ensure that the campus is ready for its core activities, rather than opening an office to empty a rubbish bin with very little waste.
• The general level of waste generated by an individual that is not recyclable is small. It is the annoying items like staples, paper clips, etc, that cause the problem, and the ‘Jute' bag is in general large enough to cope with this on a daily basis.

The future?

Once the changes are fully established, we will publicise how the changes have improved the University's environmental impact.

It is hoped this will be the foundation on which further improvements can be made.

We are also open to any suggestions on how we can make further improvements; please email the Department of Estates with your suggestions.

Greg Dargue
Deputy Director of Estates

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