Chemistry Sustainability Committee Newsletter
February 2012
An Introduction to the committee
Welcome to the first newsletter created to help keep you informed about sustainability issues
in the School of Chemistry. We have been working with the University Sustainability Office to
identify realistic changes that the School can make to progress towards a more sustainable
working environment.
We have now signed up to the Green Impact Award scheme. This is run by the Sustainability
office which, as well as being a visible measure of our success, will provide a structured
framework of targets for us to progress towards. Our current goal is to achieve the Bronze
Award and progress to date has already placed us in the ‘working towards Bronze’ category.
For more on the award scheme see
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/environment/green_impact/
We are lucky to have a dynamic and motivated committee that truly wants to make a
difference to the way we impact on the environment. However, none of us would claim to
have all the answers and we would greatly welcome helpful suggestions and ideas from
anybody in the School. Comments and feedback will soon be able to be posted on a
dedicated discussion board but in the meantime the committee can be emailed at chemgreen@bristol.ac.uk.
Waste
Each year the University Sustainability team go through all of the waste produced by the
School of Chemistry to see what is being generated and how it was being disposed of. In
2010 it shows that 58 % of the waste being produced went straight into landfill, whilst only 38
% was being recycled. Of the waste going straight into landfill, 57% of this was lab plastics,
whilst over 20% was waste that could have been recycled using systems already in place in
the department.
May 2010 Data
1%
7%
1%
General waste
(landfill)
4%
Paper
9%
Confidential Paper
2%
Can&Plastic
58%
18%
Cardboard
Glass
This year’s audit by Sustainability showed that a lot of things have changed and things have
improved.
May 2011 Data
Percentage
Biodegradable waste
/ kg
29%
Paper / kg
25%
Cardboard / kg
5%
Plastic (1,2,5,6) / kg
6%
19%
7%
2%
1%
2% 2% 1%
0%
Other plastic
1%
Improvements:
In 2009/2010 Chemistry sent total 134.2 tonnes to landfill
In 2010/2011 Chemistry sent 120.7 tonnes to landfill
In 2011/2012 the target to aim for is 100.6 tonnes
In November 2011 food waste collections started at Chemistry and we expect to collect a
tonne of food waste from Chemistry over the year, which would have otherwise gone to
Landfill. Chemistry recycling and reuse is improving greatly with a reduction in the amount
of glass, cardboard, paper and general waste going to landfill, compared to last years data.
In addition you can now recycle:
 Food waste
 Papers inlcuding magazines and catalogues
 Polystyrene (bring to stores)
 Glass, inlcuding triple washed lab glass and safebreak bottles
 Uncontaminated Pyrex/Ceramics (in Teaching labs or Safety centre)
 Plastics (types 1,2,5+6) including, pots, tubs, bottles and cups
 Card and cardboard
 All waste electrical items
 Wood including pallets
 Furniture
 And much more…….
The Sustainability committee also performed a Chemistry-wide audit. This was largely to
assess the current waste facilities in place and to discuss any other waste and energy
related issues with members of the department.
In response to this, you may have seen that more recycling points, including battery
collection points, have sprung up around the building. There also appeared to be uncertainty
regarding cardboard disposal, with various systems in place for its recycling (or not!). Again,
we hope that people will now find cardboard recycling points are clearly labelled. If not
please let us know.
We also identified some ‘diversity’ in the disposal of laboratory waste, and due to this,
certain materials or substances are not always going down the correct waste steam. We
now have some new containers for contaminated absorbants and PPE, contaminated glass
and clean pyrex/ceramics, along with a poster on how to dispose of different lab waste
types. For a link to the poster see
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/environment/waste/hazardous/
Overall, we gained the impression that most people were relatively conscious of the
importance of saving energy and water and were already aware of the importance of turning
off lights and reducing needless energy consumption, which is very positive. We are aware
that there are issues with the unevenness of heating of the building, leading to ‘hot’ and
‘cold’ spots; this is unfortunately not easy to resolve quickly but we will be investigating any
opportunities to improve this.
Many thanks for taking the time to talk to us during and after our inspection!