We're not rubbish at recycling...
As the age old adage goes; "Reduce, Re-use, Recycle - then tell everyone about it!"
Right, we might have made the last part up, but since 2015 the Union has been recording the amount of rubbish we generate - and for the 3rd year in a row, we've increased the amount of waste that we send to be recycled.
In the 2015-16 Academic year, we managed to recycle 3% of our waste. The year after, we managed to set a record of 23% of our waste. This year, we're currently on course for more than 35% of our waste going to be recycled - smashing last years record!
Not only have we been able to increase the amount of recycling that is being recovered, we've also managed to reduce the overall amount of waste that we generate, which is step number one in the waste hierarchy. Compared with last year, we're generated nearly 15 tonnes less to date compared with last year's figures.
One of our big succeses has been the introduction of our food waste recycling. If you eat in any of the Students' Union's venues and leave the crusts from your pizza, leftover chips that have gone cold or anything similar - they no longer get put in the bin. Instead, we collect them so that they can be turned into super sustainable bio-gas and fertiliser for fields.
It's a fantastic way of reusing a waste product and making it into something useful. In the first 12 months of doing his alone, we managed to collect nearly eight tonnes of food waste and kitchen scraps. The United Kingdom currently throws away over seven million tonnes of food waste, which is a big issue. Whilst we work to reduce the total amount, we will continue to send our waste to be put to good use. If you want to find out more about food waste, take a look HERE.
As well as this, last year we managed to send 18 tonnes of glass to be recycled. Glass is 100% recyclable and using old glass saves 25% of the energy it would take to make new glass.