Our Sustainable Food Commitment focuses our efforts on five areas that have the largest climate impact.

One of the five areas focuses on reducing food waste. Some of our schemes to encourage this, which you can get involved with are:

Munch Box

Students, staff and visitors can bring their own container to one of the outlets listed below and buy surplus food for just £3.

The Munch Box initiative is available at the end of hot counter service until food runs out, at these locations and times:

• lime tree lunch: Monday to Friday, 2pm
• lime tree dinner: Monday to Friday, 7.30pm, Sunday, 5pm
• Sports Café: Monday to Sunday, 3pm
• Pavilion Cafe breakfast and lunch: Monday to Friday, 11am and 2.30pm

Community larders

You can find these:

• on campus by the exit of the Fresh shop, after the Amazon lockers
• in the city, in the downstairs cafe area of The Virgil Building

The campus larder area has a fridge and freezer, where students and staff can donate or collect items.

The food is free for you to collect, but please only take what you need and will use.

Check the guidance for what you can donate to the community larder.

Food donation points

You can leave in-date, non-perishable food in the donation trollies, located on and off campus at the end of each term.

Food waste recycling for staff

We are currently rolling out a trial of food waste collection in staff kitchens. The waste is taken to an anaerobic digestion plant to generate completely renewable electricity, which is exported to the national grid. It also produces a digestate bio-fertiliser, which is used on crops on the surrounding farmland.

The Exchange reusable scheme

To make it easier to use a reusable cup, The Exchange scheme allows you to buy a travel cup for £3. This can be used for both hot and cold drinks.

Once you've finished using it, clean it thoroughly before giving it back to staff at our hospitality outlets.

We still make sure that any used cups returned to us are cleaned thoroughly again in our dishwashers.

You can also switch your Exchange cup for a token when you don't want to carry a cup, meaning you can pick up a new reusable cup on your next visit.

Our Exchange cups come with lids, so you can take them into the Library.

Pizza exchange

The reusable pizza box scheme works at lime tree in a similar way. You can buy a box for £1, which then gives you a 50p discount on your pizza each time you use it.

Bring the reusable container with you and use it for taking away pizza or bringing leftovers away with you.

You can swap it in for a token when you don't want to carry the box, meaning you can pick up a new one on your next visit.

The pizza exchange does not work on orders from the self service kiosk, only on orders made at the coffee counter and the bar.

The Refillery station

You can find the Refill station in The Market. Bring along your own container or use a paper bag provided, and stock up on a range of dry ingredients and snacks. There is no plastic packaging involved and if you buy just the amount you need, this helps to reduce food waste.

Water refill stations

Fill up your water bottle for free at any of our food and drink outlets on campus. This map shows where water refills are available across campus.

You can also download the Refill app to your phone, which gives you access to a map of water fountains in different areas.

Recycling in accommodation

Each year we run a competition between accommodation flat groups to see who can recycle the most waste.

All you have to do is volunteer your flat to live with zero waste for two weeks. The flat group who recycle the most will win a food voucher to spend in Fresh. Speak to your ResLife team to get involved.

End of term donation

You will find charity donation banks around campus. Use these to dispose of your unwanted belongings when you leave University accommodation and help to raise money for charities such as the British Heart Foundation.

This initiative has raised over £1.5 million for the British Heart Foundation thanks to the kind donations of university students across the country. The donated items are sold in the charities' shops.

Donate your belongings to charity - find out what to donate and where.

Disposable vapes and e-cigarettes

There is a bin located outside the lime tree for recycling disposable vapes and e-cigarettes. Do not put these in the battery recycling bins.

Terracycle scheme

Unfortunately we are no longer able to run the snack packet, oral hygiene and make up recycling scheme on campus.

If you would like to keep recycling these items, you can take:

• Snack packaging, along with other soft plastics to many local supermarkets including Co-Op supermarkets and Sainsbury’s at Odd Down
• Some oral hygiene packaging and make up containers for recycling in Boots stores and Superdrug Stores