Submitted by Jessica Haskell on Wed, 2019-12-18 17:20
On a cold bright morning in late November, you may have noticed that your building’s bin disappeared. Where did it go? To the Faculty of Economics car park on the Sidgwick Site, where it was greeted by a dozen staff and students donned in ‘hazmat’ suits, gloves and masks. It was the day of the Environment & Energy Section’s annual ‘bin-busting’ session!
I was half convinced there would be some horrible ‘find’ among the rubbish
Over the course of two hours, six randomly-selected ‘General Waste’ (non-recycling) bins from around the University were tipped out, and all 230 kilos of waste in them was meticulously sorted into waste types and weighed. Sifting through waste might sound like an unpleasant task, but in fact our bin-busting participants found that most of the waste was surprisingly clean, and it was informative to take part. “I felt quite excited about the bin audit because the photos from last year’s event made it look fun to be part of the audit team, which it turned out to be!”, says Nessa, one of the staff participants this year. “I was half convinced there would be some horrible ‘find’ among the rubbish, but being part of a team meant it would be OK even if that happened - in the event there were no weird ‘finds’ , which was slightly disappointing - in a weird way!”
What did we find?
The rubbish the team found provided valuable data on what waste the University is producing. As the graph below shows, one of the striking finds was just how much the type of waste varies between buildings (specific site names have been anonymised, but building descriptions have been included).
So what waste do we produce?
As this is the third year that the bin-busting study has been carried out, there is now quite a lot of data on what waste is found in both the recycling and general waste bins, as shown in the chart below. What’s clear is that staff are generally good at separating out the waste streams into recyclable and non-recyclable, particularly in ensuring that cardboard and paper are put in the recycling bin, and that lab waste, paper towels, textiles and wood go in the general waste bins. The areas where there’s ambiguity appear to be on plastic containers, wrapping, bottles and cans and tins. There has been much in the news about how plastics recycling is becoming more challenging due to high levels of contamination, the variety of types of plastic used in day-to-day applications, and international changes in waste management like China’s waste import ban. The solution here is therefore to minimize plastic use as much as possible, particularly ‘single use’ items like cups and bottles. One thing is 100% clear, though - cans and tins should always be recycled, something staff don’t always remember!
Where does all this waste end up?
Every year the University reports on its waste outputs, including the end destinations of its waste. The interim figures for 2018–19 are just in, and are displayed in the table below. It’s clear that the General Waste and Mixed Recycling trade waste bins, which our bin-busting studies focus on, are a big contributor to the University’s waste. Construction waste, however, is an even bigger proportion of the University’s waste outputs (fortunately a lot of construction waste is reused or recycled!). What’s also great to see from this chart is that small recycling initiatives like the crisp packet and snack wrapper collections, and pen recycling schemes, are making a tangible addition to the University’s recycling rate for items that would otherwise have ended up being used as ‘refuse-derived-fuel’ (i.e. waste which is incinerated for energy).
What else did we find?
Lots of tea, coffee and food waste was found, particularly from office buildings. The University does provide food waste bins, but they aren’t presently available in all buildings, so this indicates that perhaps some buildings need to consider setting up a food waste collection! As Lieneke, staff participant in the study, said: “there was a lot of food waste in the general waste bins. This is something I recognise from the building I work in myself, as the only food bin in the building is in the canteen. So I definitely think there is room for improvement on separating food waste within the University”.
A large proportion of the waste, particularly from research buildings, was lab and research waste. While much of this is not recyclable, there’s still lots that can be done to reduce this waste stream by minimising use of these wastes as much as possible, or by engaging directly with suppliers to encourage reductions in packaging. In addition, the study showed a surprising amount of nitrile glove waste and Styrofoam waste – two waste streams that the Environment & Energy Section has been working with colleagues across the University to identify recycling options for. There was also a huge amount of paper towels found during the study, perhaps indicating a need for signs in bathrooms, kitchens and labs encouraging staff to cut down on their use!
The good news is that only a very small amount of recyclables were found in the General Waste bins, although as the pictures below show, there were still quite a lot of paper coffee cups and disposable water bottles to be found, both of which can easily be eliminated completely by simple behaviour changes. With University catering outlets offering a 25p incentive to use re-usable cups, and many other outlets offering similar discounts, there’s really no excuse for using throw-away options! Meanwhile, the Environment & Energy Section have a stock of recycled, reusable water bottles which staff and students can request – if they pledge not to use disposable ones!
What were the takeaway messages from those who took part in the study?
Charlie, a student participant in the study, said:
“Some departments appear to be good at separating their waste, while others just throw everything together. Going through the waste was a real eye-opener to me about how, the more mixed the rubbish, the more difficult it is to separate, and the more inefficient any sorting must be for our waste contractors”.
Lieneke, a staff participant, puts it like this:
“If your office/workspace has a general waste bin and a recycling bin, think twice! It isn’t much effort to throw your waste in the correct bin. Will.I.Am (famous rapper/singer) has this great saying: “Waste is only waste when you waste it”. So let’s not waste, let’s recycle whenever we can!”
And finally, what was the worst item we found?
That’s easy. The individual who took this short-haul flight has added environmental insult to injury by not recycling their boarding pass!
Written by Peter Lumb