The College is committed to reducing the impact it has on the environment through promoting sustainable waste management principles.

The waste hierarchy is the commonly adopted framework which sets out the order of options to consider when managing waste sustainably:

The College has a range of initiatives to encourage students and staff to minimise the amount of waste that is produced. However, it is inevitable that an institution such as the College will generate some waste; therefore, we also aim to make it easy for people to recycle.

Recycling

Recycling facilities are conveniently situated at various points around the campus. Staff offices have separate bins for paper recycling; and paper recycling bins are also located near printers and copiers throughout the College.

Any College prospectuses which are printed, but then not used, are collected by the printer for recycling. The prospectuses themselves are also printed on Revive 50:50 Silk which is certified as a Forest Stewardship Council mixed sources product. It is produced using 50% recycled waste and 50% virgin fibre. The pulp used in the product is bleached without the use of elemental chlorine and the prospectuses are printed using vegetable based inks.

Minimising Waste

We have a range of initiatives across the College, to minimise the amount of waste that is produced. Examples of some of these are given below.

Induction information for students is provided on a re-usable USB flash drive, rather than in paper form.

All lecture notes and background information are available to students through our virtual learning environment. In addition to enabling students to access them from anywhere, at any time, it means that the students themselves print off notes and information as and when they require it. This reduces the amount of printing done centrally by staff and which often resulted in spare ‘hand-outs’ being printed which were then not used.

In turn, students are each given their own printing account to try and minimise excessive, unnecessary printing. They are each provided with a free allocation of printer credits; however, if this is exceeded, then students pay a small amount to print off further documents.

Both students and staff are able to keep track of the number of sheets they have printed, together with an estimate of how much carbon has been produced as a result, by using the ‘web printing’ system on the College intranet.

The catering department uses glassware, rather than disposable items, where it is appropriate and safe to do so. For example, glasses, rather than disposable cups, are used on most occasions in the main dining hall. Buffets are also served using washable crockery flats with lids, thereby reducing the use of cling film. Tap water, rather than bottled water, is also normally used at internal meetings, reducing packaging waste.

Students are able to sell on textbooks that they no longer need to other students, via the College shop; therefore extending the useful life of the books.