Waste
Waste and recycling is one of the most visible areas in the sustainability agenda and can demonstrate our commitment to staff, students and visitors as well as offering an opportunity for people to easily get involved in environmental improvement.
Behind the scenes we are deeply committed to the development of sustainable waste management practices, as highlighted in our Environmental Sustainability Policy, and make it as easy as possible for the university community to engage with sustainable waste disposal.
Our progress so far
In the academic year 2023/24 we produced 482 tonnes of waste (excluding construction waste), which is down from 931 tonnes in 2016/17. We have worked with our waste contractors to divert as much waste as possible from landfill, and the majority is now sent for incineration and energy recovery. Our recycle rate for 2023/24 was 42%.
When we average this, it means a full-time staff or student produces 18kg of waste at the university every year, which is half what it was from 2018/19. We have concluded this is because we are using significantly less paper and we are reusing furniture.
| Waste disposal method | % |
|---|---|
| Landfill | 0 |
| Incineration | 0.4 |
| Anaerobic digestion | 4 |
| Recycled | 43 |
| Energy from waste | 52 |
Waste management - is coordinated by the Estates and Facilities Division in accordance with the waste and recycling service level agreement. All members of staff in the Estates Division are trained on responsible waste management by the Environmental Sustainability Team and refreshed annually. Please refer to the Waste and Recycling Service Level Agreement if you have any queries about the support we provide.
Construction waste - the amount of construction waste generated each year varies immensely depending on the campus development at the time, therefore a target for reduction of this is not achievable; however we encourage contractors to aim for at least 90% recycling.
Our Sustainable Waste Management Plan
The objectives of our Waste Management Plan are to:
- To ensure legal compliance and best practice with waste management
- To encourage the use of the waste hierarchy principles by staff, students and contractors
- To reduce the total amount of waste generated each year
- To divert waste from landfill using both onsite and offsite segregation methods
- To reduce the cost of waste disposal
- To improve the quality of waste data
Our targets:
- Reduce the quantity of waste produced per staff and student FTE year on year
- Increase overall recycling of University waste to 50% by September 2025
- Eliminate avoidable single use plastics on campus
Please see the links at the bottom of the page for detailed information on each of our targets.
At the University we have a zero to landfill operation; instead, our waste is burnt to produce energy. Although this is a preferred method to landfill, it still has an impact on our planet, so we promote other waste management actions through our waste hierarchy
Our guiding principles
The waste hierarchy means we consider waste reduction and reuse before recycling and waste disposal. We contribute to the circular economy and life cycle thinking within sustainable purchasing and actively work to use equipment we already have when furnishing new areas. This is also achieved by encouraging staff to browse our surplus assets through Warp It, our reuse portal, so any bits and pieces they might need for their office or classrooms could be found on this site. For more information on Warp It go to our reuse page.