We encourage you to take part in Leave No Trace, a recycling and waste management initiative aiming to minimise the rubbish we send to landfill and reduce our carbon footprint.

Reduce your disposable waste

You can recycle oral hygiene products, bread bags, snack packaging and makeup packaging in our grey recycling containers at these locations:

• SU, outside The Market
• The Virgil Building
• West Accommodation Centre
• 2 South reception
• John Wood reception, in the city

There are two boxes in each location. Makeup and oral hygiene items can go together in one box and and crisp packets and bread bags in the other.

The Exchange

To make it easier to use a reusable coffee cup, The Exchange cup scheme allows you to buy a travel coffee cup for £2.

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

We are only able to accept empty, clean, dry cups back. If your cup isn't clean enough, staff are not able to take it.

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.

Cup charges

These are the charges and discounts when buying a hot drink from one of our outlets:

• drinking in the outlet, using crockery – menu price
• using an Exchange cup, or any reusable cup – 20p discount
• using a disposable takeaway cup – extra 20p charge

This is to help reduce the amount of disposable takeaway cups we send to landfill.

Recycle your waste

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 hamper. Speak to your accommodation team to get involved.

Find out how to recycle in University accommodation.

Reduce your carbon footprint

The Student Switch Off is an international campaign aiming to reduce our carbon footprint and its contribution to climate change.

Every year residences compete against each other to see who can save the most electricity in their accommodation.

There will be two winners, one from campus accommodation and one from the city centre. At the end of each month, semester and academic year the most successful groups will receive prizes including meals and ice cream.

Discover more about how you can be a part of Student Switch Off.

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 and the Children's Society.

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 rather than sending them to landfill. Find out what to donate and where.