Zero-Waste Transition
More Project Ideas
Bottle Out
National sales of bottled water have risen rapidly in the last decade and now account for 5% of all drinks purchased. Bottled water costs more per litre than petrol and has a massive carbon footprint when compared to tap water.
Both Leeds & Sheffield Student Unions are in the process of phasing out bottled water. The Leeds union’s main bar is one of Britain’s largest single drink outlets. It has committed to install free drinking fountains on the main campus and at residences and blocks of student flats. Sheffield P&P’s campaign collected mass student support through a petition and Bottle Out! Sheffield facebook group.
Clothes Recycling Bins
Find locations for free clothes recycling bins on your campus and raise some much-needed cash for People & Planet. Traid diverts textiles from landfill by collecting and redesigning clothes to sell on in TRAID shops around the country. The profits they raise go to sustainability projects in the UK and some of the world’s poorest communities. What’s more, Traid will keep a tally of how many tonnes of waste you divert from landfill! For each bin you can place, People & Planet will get £100. To get one at your uni contact Alice
Practical Projects
- Hold weekly or monthly swap shop stalls at your union or on campus - don’t forget to weight clothes to measure your impact
- Set up a communuity Freecycle or exchange & trading scheme for students
- Hold a second hand book fair for old course books - as a fundraiser for People &Planet?
- Colour-coded recycling awareness scheme throughout uni
- Install reverse vending machines that give out credits for recycling. Check out what happened Reading Uni
- Recycle your old mobile phones and printer cartridges with Each One Counts to raise money for People & Planet
- Set up composting facilities for halls - sell bins at freshers fair with map of where to take it or arrange a collection scheme
- Contact Foodcycle or FareShare to set up a community cafe using surplus food that would have otherwise been thrown away by retailers
Engagement & Awareness-raising
- Art attacks made from waste to raise awareness
- Hold a ‘Ready, Steady, Skip’ event - collect waste food and cook a meal in front of an audience
- Hold a huge community meal using waste food similar to the ‘Feeding the 5000’ event
- Cheaper coffee if you ‘Lug a Mug’. Find out more
- Campus shops give credits for recycling cans and returning bottles.
- Hold a Stitch ‘n’ Bitch/Knit ‘n’ Natter event to teach people how to mend and customise their clothes rather than throw them away
- Hold a ‘make a reusable bag’ workshop using scrap material
Building Community
- Recycling competitions between departments or halls of residence
- Team up with local designers, businesses and art students on creative re-use projects
- Invite local charity shops to hold sales and stalls on campus or at the union
- Link in students to existing Freecycle and LETS schemes in your area
Creating institutional change
- Lobby your university and union to become zero waste. Check out case studies here
- Lobby the University to compost food waste from halls
- Lobby the University & union to ban the sale of bottled water on campus
- Lobby the union to stop the use of plastic cups in the bar
- Lobby the University to stop shops on campus from giving out free plastic bags and introduce a ‘Bag-for-Life’ or ‘Carry-a-bag’ scheme
- Campaign for campus catering outlets to reduce food waste
- Lobby your Union to install ‘Traid’ clothes recycling bins & raise £100 per bin for People & Planet
Case Study:
Freshers flock to Edinburgh’s Free Shop
Edinburgh P&P run a Freshers Free Shop to deal with the large amounts of waste created by first year and visiting students at the end of every academic year. Storage was arranged, a van was booked, posters put up and unwanted items collected in. Most were given to charity for direct re-use or sale, other items that were particularly useful to first year students were stored for the summer.
