Waste and circular economy
We’re not just recycling here in Birmingham; we’re changing how we use stuff. At our University, we aim to eliminate waste completely and keep our resources circulating within the community before buying new or sending things off to be recycled, incinerated or heading to landfill.
This means we are aiming to repair, refurbish, reuse, share and donate wherever possible; make general-waste, recycling and food-waste bins easy to find and use; avoid landfill if there is a compliant alternative; ask our suppliers to bring goods with minimal packaging, and collect any packaging we can’t reuse.
Here are some useful links for students, staff and visitors to avoid generating waste on campus:
‘New to you’ furniture or office items
If you have something you don’t need, donate it! All staff are encouraged to use Warp IT to seek or donate good quality office items or furniture and this should be the first point of call before buying brand new. We work in partnership with local schools, charities and hospitals to keep good quality, reuseable items out of landfill and the scheme is free for all University staff.
‘New to you’ laboratory equipment
If you have something you don’t need, donate or sell it! Researchers are encouraged to donate any unwanted, good-quality equipment to our schools or colleges via the Technical Academy in the first instance or use the UniGreenScheme to sell equipment that’s no longer needed within our University. Internal equipment sharing schemes or the UniGreen Scheme should be the first point of call to source equipment before buying brand new. The UniGreenScheme is free for all University staff to use.
Pay it forward
Students can donate unwanted clothes, books and household items that still have life left in them to charity through the Guild’s Junkbusters scheme. Particularly handy towards the end of term!
Water refill stations
Staff, students and visitors have free access to over 460 water refill stations across our Edgbaston Campus, helping our community to reduce waste and ditch single-use plastic bottles. You can buy reusable cups and bottles at most of our food and drink outlets on campus.
Information to help staff understand how to segregate and manage waste (including general waste, recycling, food waste, battery recycling, ink and toner recycling, electric waste and dealing with hazardous materials) is available on our University SharePoint site.