Moving towards zero waste
A Sustainable Waste Management Strategy for
the University of Worcester
2008 – 2012
Revised May 2009
Introduction
The first Waste Strategy was adopted by the University in December 2007, this is the first
review, which takes into account the completion of a dedicated recycling and waste
compound constructed at the rear of the Facilities Department, the re tendering and awarding
of the trade waste contract to Worcester City Council, investment in new corporate waste and
recycling receptacles and the introduction of a structured and joint communications and
awareness campaign with the University and the City Council. This joint campaign uses the
same colours and graphics in all University accommodation, including Halls of Residence to
assist in training students and staff in the City’s recycling regime. This work which began so
successfully in the Halls (recycling rates have increased by 123%) is being rolled out now to
the rest of the campus, through pilot programmes.
Policy and Targets
UW adopted an Environmental Policy in February 2008 which was reviewed in October 2008
which gives an overall commitment to continually improve UW’s environmental performance
and develop an Environmental Management System (EMS) to achieve this in a structured
way. The Executive Management Board has undertaken to provide the human and financial
resources required to implement this EMS which covers all operations and sites of the
University.
In order to achieve the policy statements, UW has set objectives and targets to both prevent
pollution and mitigate the University’s significant environmental impacts. Within the overall
policy there are three pertinent clauses for waste, dealing with re-use, re-cycling and
complying with legislation, as summarised in the table below. UW has chosen both
quantitative targets and qualitative targets and these are reviewed regularly. The most recent
review has seen a change in the volume of waste sent to landfill from a target of 2% per
annum per tonne per full time equivalent student and staff upwards to 5%, so that the
University aims to have reduced the amount it sends to landfill by 20% from its baseline year
covering the lifetime of this Strategy. It has also established a new target to increase the
amount of recycling by 5% annually (20% by 2012) covering the period of this Strategy.
Table 1 below also sets out the qualitative targets which remain unaltered and the quantitative
targets.
Table 1:
Policy
Re-use resources whenever
possible rather than dispose of
them
Encourage the use of recycled
materials and recycling initiatives
Comply with all relevant
environmental legislation,
regulations and requirements
Qualitative targets







Regularly review practice
against benchmarks
Train all relevant staff
Segregate and label waste
clearly and accurately
Improve waste storage
Monitor volume produced
Increase re-use and
recycling
Increase staff and student
awareness to reduce waste
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Quantitative targets
Reduce volume of waste to
landfill by 5% annually (20%
over the 4 year period 2008 –
2012) (metric tonne per fte)
Increase the amount of
recycling by 5% annually
(20% over the 4 year period
2008 – 2012)
Progress review
Both the quantitative and qualitative targets were reviewed at the beginning of January 2009,
and are reported on our website http://www.worc.ac.uk/about/10783.html and shown in the
tables below.
Table 2 : Progress review of quantitative targets as at July 2008
WASTE
Metric tonnes per full
time equivalent (fte)
staff and students
Baseline
year
2005/6
0.27
2006/7
0.25
2007/8
Progress
0.25
Change from baseline year by 6.4 % waste sent to
landfill per fte
48
Metric tonnes sent for
recycling
83
Increased amount sent for recycling from baseline year
but no increased in the amount in 07/08.
83
Table 3 : Progress review of qualitative targets as at April 2009
Qualitative targets
Comment
Regularly review practice against
benchmarks
Benchmark data in Business in the Community- Universities that Count,
Estates Management Statistics and People & Planet Green League
Train all relevant staff
Training programme in place
Segregate and label waste clearly
and accurately
Designated storage areas with clear signage installed at the rear of Woodbury
and within the Halls
Improve waste storage
Dedicated waste storage areas established and operational procedures agreed
for all types of controlled, hazardous and non hazardous waste
Monitor volume produced
Electronic records of waste and recycling established and program for
publishing records being developed
Increase re-use and recycling
Recycling established in Halls of residence both on and off campus. Recycling
rates increased by 123%. Pilot programs for recycling schemes for office and
academic space ongoing
Increase awareness-raising
Ongoing programme for staff and students using joint resources with
Worcester City Council, innovative student Eco Reps and a communications
strategy is being developed.
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Aspects and Impacts
The University under took an environmental aspects and impacts study and the waste that the
institution produces was highlighted as having a significant impact on the environment. The
impact that waste has on the environment can be summarised as follows:
‘Less waste sent to landfill reduces methane and other greenhouse gas emissions which
contribute to climate change. Correct disposal and storage of all waste has environmental and
human benefits in terms of reduced pollution and risk to health, reduced depletion of natural
resources/deforestation, soil erosion and habitat loss. Significant benefits in terms of
rodent/pest control and minimisation of waste storage facilities.
Reduced potential
contamination and eco-toxicity but negative contribution to climate change arises from CO2
emissions and resource use from transport and some energy-inefficient recycling processes.’
Minimising the amount of waste sent to landfill, storing and dealing effectively with waste prior
to disposal and increasing the amount re-used or recycled is clearly a priority.
Legislation
Waste and waste disposal is subject to numerous pieces of legislation, with new legislation
coming into force regularly. Appendix 1 shows an extract from the University’s environmental
legal register which identifies 18 pieces of legislation, 15 of which currently affect the
University. These range from The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (Waste
Management Licensing) (England and Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2007 SI 1085 for the
disposal of electronic and electrical goods to Environmental Permitting (England and Wales)
Regulations 2007 SI 3538 which covers the storage, treatment or disposal of controlled waste
onsite, including composting and burning green waste and compacting of cardboard.
Monitoring changes in the law and the implications of changes to the University’s operations
is an important factor in this Waste Strategy. Being able to respond to change and
resourcing, both with physical changes to infrastructure and processes, and keeping staff
informed of changes are important to the management and continual improvement of our
environmental performance.
Location of waste and recycling facilities
Appendix 2 shows the location of the recycling and waste facilities, and compost bins for the
St John’s Campus (SJC), Battenhall and the City Campus. As the University grows and new
sites become operational these plans are updated, including Hylton Road, the extension of
SJC to include Regency High School, Stephenson Terrace and Grove Farm.
Servicing strategy
Waste to landfill
All waste generated by the University is removed from the campuses either by contractors or
in the case of recyclables by the City of Worcester’s kerbside household collection service.
The University’s Cleaning and Environmental Services Manager is responsible for the
segregation of waste streams in order to reduce the volume going to landfill. The Facilities
Department provides an internal waste collection service from all areas of the campuses
which is operated by the porters. The students are responsible for emptying their own waste
directly into eurobins, both rubbish and recycling. Cleaning staff are responsible for emptying
waste bins and recycling bins in office and teaching areas. Pilots are being undertaken to
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reduce the frequency of the collection of waste, and make regular (rather than on request)
collection of recyclables. Trolleys with green and black re-useable bags are in use to facilitate
collection. Cleaners deposit in agreed locations filled re-useable green/black bags. These
bags of waste and recyclables are transported by the porters using electric vehicles to the
appropriate eurobin located in designated areas.
Waste from St John’s Campus is removed by Worcester City Council’s trade refuse
department Monday to Friday at midday. A 26 tonne laden weight vehicle of 27,900 litres
capacity is used. This collects from up to six locations on campus and only takes full bins.
Collection takes on average half an hour per day. Summary of collection data is shown in
Table 4 below.
The University has one skip (capacity 20m3) permanently on site located in the recycling
compound at the rear of Woodbury Building. The compound is now covered by CCTV and
management of waste being deposited in the skip is dealt with by the Cleaning and
Environmental Services Manager. Estates contractors are no-longer permitted to utilise these
facilities, and they are used primarily for surplus furniture which cannot be re-used, non reuseable fixtures and fittings and green waste by the grounds team.
Recycling and composting
Since 2005, the University has been participating in Worcester City Council’s domestic
recycling collection scheme. The City Council provide free bins at two University Halls of
Residence, Foresters and Sansome Halls, which have the University’s awareness stickers
affixed to them. The University provides its own euro bins for all other locations. The City’s
recycling is co-mingled and collected on a fortnightly basis. Additional receptacles for comingled glass are also provided free and are located behind the Students’ Union, and close to
the Halls of Residence on St John’s Campus. Jute bags are also provided free for the
students to assist them in recycling glass, but since the provision of the green eurobins,
students now segregate less glass. They are still heavily used by the Students’ Union bar
and the Catering facilities.
Collection of recyclables is by 26 tonne laden weight vehicle of 27,900 litres capacity once a
fortnight. Collection is from six collection points on St John’s Campus and only full bins are
emptied. Collection takes approximately half an hour. Glass bottle banks are emptied on
request usually within 48 hours of notification. Textiles are emptied once per semester on a
request basis.
Cardboard is segregated by campus users, primarily catering and the Students Union, and
moved in wheeled trolleys to the card board storage area in the recycling compound, and
stored in garages prior to compacting. Eco Reps regularly compact card board into bales
which is collected for recycling once a week by a local Hereford company.
A bottle bank is located permanently on campus outside the front of Hines building and this is
used by both staff and students. Worcester City Council provides a mixed recycling collection
service so glass jars and bottles can also be placed in the green recycling bags in Halls of
Residence and in the mixed recycling receptacles placed around the campus in office and
teaching spaces.
A textile, clothing and shoe collection bank is provided on campus, currently located at the
front of the Hines building. This will be moved back to the Halls of Residence area once
construction work is completed on SJC. This bank is provided by BCR Global Textiles and
proceeds from the sale of donations go to the Meningitis Trust. The same company also
provide a bra bank, located alongside the textile bank, and proceeds from this recycling bank
are donated to Acorns Children’s Hospice.
There are eight domestic compost bins located on St John’s Campus, located close to halls
and kitchens as shown in Appendix 2. A large compost facility is situated at Battenhall for
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grass and green waste generated by the grounds team. The University has plans to install an
accelerated composter to deal with catering and halls organic waste.
Operational procedures
Operational procedures for all aspects of waste management and recycling can be found at
O:\Cross Departmental Information\Eco Campus\EcoCampus Steering Group.
The
operational procedures relating to waste and recycling are listed below:













Waste Management - general
Composting food waste
Recycling of paper, plastic bottles and cans
Recycling of cardboard
Recycling of toner and printer cartridges
Inter-departmental re-use of stationery
Disposal of Hazardous Waste
Production, storage and disposal of controlled waste
Production and storage of Hazardous Waste
Disposal of WEEE (Electronic and IT Equipment)
Disposal of WEEE (Electrical equipment)
Disposal of batteries
Disposal of mobile phones
These are reviewed and amended on a regular basis, and are for all the University’s sites as
appropriate.
Table 4 : Rubbish euro bin collections data for 5 Months from 1 December – 20th April
Total Collection
Average
Collection
Maximum
Average Daily
Rear of Kitchens
Student Union
Rear of
Woodbury
Wyvern Hall
Chandler Hall
Worcester
Monday
455
Tuesday
192
Wednesday
206
Thursday
359
Friday
194
Weekly
1406
22
33
9
12
10
14
17
25
9
14
67
83
2
1
1
1
1
1
2
1
2
1
8
5
Possible
Collections
10
10
4
4
2
8
4
2
1
0
4
2
1
0
3
2
1
8
3
2
1
0
18
12
5
16
45
30
10
50
6
Variance
2
5
26
18
4
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Table 5: Recycling eurobins collection data for 5 months from 1 December – 20th April
Collection Point
Student Union
Rear of Woodbury
Wyvern Hall
Chandler Hall
Worcester Halls 1
Worcester Halls 2
Total
Green
Bins
1
17
2
2
4
4
30
Total
collections
9
82
15
9
25
19
159
Possible
collections
9
153
18
18
36
36
270
Variance
Maximum
0
71
3
9
11
17
111
2
14
2
2
4
4
Average
The data in Table 5 shows that there is spare capacity within the recycling and as further
initiatives and awareness-raising is rolled out the University can cope with a growth in
recycling. Additionally, the institution owns the eurobins and plans to re-spray bins from black
to green as recycling requirements increase.
Waste Management at City Campus
In general the types of waste and treatment methods relevant to the City Campus will be
similar to those already in place at St John’s Campus. However, there will be a reduction in
the proportion of hazardous waste generated as there will be no science laboratories and
limited green waste due to very few amenity grassland areas.
Approaches to the management of waste at the City Campus will also, in general, adopt
existing practices. Management structures will be the same as those in force at St John’s. A
similar system of internal waste collection by Facilities Department staff using electric vehicles
will be utilised. Students will be required to empty their own waste and recycling into eurobins
provided in designated refuse and recycling compounds.
Interim waste management strategy for City Campus for 12
months commencing September 2009
The University will occupy 177 bedrooms from September 2009; these will be the only part of
the City Campus that is occupied for 12 months, whilst the refurbishment of Mulberry House
and the Infirmary is completed. UW intends to service the Halls in the same way that it
currently services Sansome and Foresters Halls of residence, by utilising the City Council’s
free fortnightly household collection service. However, it will provide its own eurobins. UW
will purchase 24 eurobins with tow bars (12 for recycling - green, 12 for rubbish – black) which
will be labelled with UW’s labelling and awareness stickers. Experience from Sansome Halls
with 83 bedrooms and 12 euro bins indicates there is sufficient capacity to store two weeks’
waste and recycling in 13,200 litres of eurobin for the number of residents. If more eurobins
are required there are spare bins on SJC and these can temporarily be located to the City
Campus, as not all bins both black and green are in use. See Tables 4 and 5 above.
The eurobins will be located adjacent to block 3, in an area of hoarding segregated from the
construction, and will be accessible to students. Facilities staff, using the tow bars and an
electric vehicle will move the full bins to the bridge on Infirmary Walk for emptying into the City
Council’s waste or recycling refuse vehicle on the household collection rounds. Facilities staff
will ensure the empty eurobins are moved back to the temporary bin compound adjacent to
block 3.
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1.0
9.1
1.7
1.0
2.8
2.1
Interim waste management strategy for City campus from
September 2010 until the campus is fully constructed
Over the summer of 2010, the University will move the Business School into Mulberry House
and the Infirmary building, and will establish a Well Being Centre and small cafe in block 9.
UW will then extend its trade refuse contract with Worcester City Council to include a Monday
to Friday daily collection of refuse. Eurobins will be re-sited in the purpose-built rubbish and
recycling compounds- see Appendix 2 - at the end of the court yard between blocks 2 and 3,
in front of Mulberry House. In addition two euro bins, one of each type will be located in front
of block 9 to provide a facility close to the cafe. As at SJC, the green euro bins can be rotated
when full by Facilities staff. The recycling will remain on the household collection service
which is the same for SJC and the University’s other campuses.
City Campus waste management once the campus is fully
occupied
It is anticipated that the City Campus will provide accommodation for around 3,500 students
and 270 staff with approximately 370 bedrooms. The gross internal area will be about 15,000
sq metres non-residential and 18,000sq metres residential, on the 5 acre site. In rough terms
this equates to about 1/3rd of UW’s current population of 8,000 students and 750 staff. The
University has 60 eurobins (30 of each colour) which are not being utilised to their full
capacity under a daily (Monday to Friday trade refuse contract and fortnightly recycling)
collection at SJC. The SJC’s population includes nearly 700 bedrooms. Therefore, it is
anticipated that 24 euro bins with similar management arrangements will be sufficient. Once
the campus is complete in addition to the bin storage areas noted in Appendix 2, there will be
at least one railway arch 47sq metres available for additional bin storage should this be
required.
External recycling between City campus and St John’s campus
In co-operation with Worcester City’s Cleaner and Greener team, UW intends to create the
first area of co-located public waste bins and recycling bins on the pedestrian route between
the City Campus and St John’s Campus, which includes the new cycle way and bund
protecting the river from flooding. The receptacles will have the joint awareness graphics
developed between the City Council and UW.
Waste streams
At the University of Worcester, waste is generated from the following activities:








Office/administrative activities
Laboratory teaching, which produces chemical waste
Demolition, construction and refurbishment of buildings
Grounds maintenance
Maintenance of a transport fleet and parking facilities
Catering services
On-campus residential accommodation
Students’ Union shop, social and catering outlets
Much of the waste produced at the University falls into two specific categories –
hazardous and non-hazardous. In addition, there is a significant amount of catering
waste.
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Hazardous Waste produced by the University is summarised below in Table 6
Table 6: Type and Method of Disposal of Hazardous Waste
Type of Waste
Batteries
Chemicals
Electronic/Electrical
Equipment
Fluorescent Tubes
Fridges and refrigeration
Equipment
IT equipment
Mercury
Mobile Phones
Nappies/sanitary items
Oils
Paint
Products containing CFCs
Solvents
Toner and printer cartridges
Method of Disposal
Small number generated - recycling introduced May 09
Review and disposal of all chemicals on campus carried
out, new storage facilities completed
Disposed of in accordance with the WEEE Directive
and/or donated to charity
Stored in specialist containers and removed periodically
by Mercury Recycling
Stored in a designated area and collected by Chemtech
Waste every 6 months for safe disposal
Disposed of in accordance with WEEE Directive and/or
donated to charity
To be assessed and reviewed
Disposed of in designated boxes and collected by
Green source solutions for recycling and re-use when
required
PHS Group
To be assessed and reviewed
To be assessed and reviewed
To be assessed and reviewed
To be assessed and reviewed
Disposed of in designated recycling boxes and
collected by Greensource Solutions for recycling and
re-use as and when required
Non Hazardous Waste is summarised below in Table 7
Table 7 : Type and Method of Disposal of Non-Hazardous Waste
Type of waste
Method of Disposal
Books
Collected by Print Waste or donated to
local charity shops/Education resources for
Africa
Compacted on site and removed by
Hereford Waste Paper for recycling
Deposited in skips provided by Clearaway
and removed to landfill
Recycled via the Worcester City Council
kerbside recycling scheme
Recycled via the Worcester City Council
kerbside recycling scheme
Shredded on site by Shred-It as and when
required and recycled
Recycled via the Worcester City Council
Cardboard
Furniture
Magazines and light card - office/domestic
from Halls of Residence
Paper – office/domestic from Halls of
Residence
Paper – confidential
Plastic Bottles – office/catering
outlets/Halls of Residence
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Cans (aluminium and steel) – office/
catering outlets/Halls of Residence
kerbside recycling scheme
Recycled via the Worcester City Council
Kerbside recycling scheme
Catering services waste is summarised below:
A wide variety of waste is generated by the campus catering facilities operated by
Aramark which serves on average 300 plated meals and 250 packets of sandwiches per
day during semester time. Approximately 100 staff and students consume their own food
in the dining room and café outlets each day. It is estimated that the following wastes
were generated in 2006/07:
Table 8 : Waste generated by University catering services annually
Type of Waste
Estimated amount of waste generated:
Cardboard packaging
Glass bottles and jars
Tetra packs
Polystyrene cups
Plastic cups
Milk cartons (2 litre)
Plastic bottles
Aluminium cans
compactor introduced in 2008
3700 – disposed of via on-site bottle bank
2400 – sent to landfill
116,000 – sent to landfill
27,000 – sent to landfill
7,000 – majority recycled
33,800 – some recycling due to increase
as recycling facilities expanded more as
recycling rolled out across campus and not
just in dining room
180 per week sold over the counter
Plastic food trays
Polythene and clingfilm
Cooked food waste
Uncooked food waste
800 per week sold from vending machines
Quantity unknown
Quantity unknown
Quantity unknown – sent to landfill
4.62 tonnes composted
Quantities of waste produced
In 2006/2007 the University produced some 1937 tonnes of waste which was sent to
landfill. This figure represents waste produced from all sources on the campus. As the
recycling is rolled out across campus the University intends to monitor waste produced
on a per building basis. In 2005/6, approximately 3% of the University’s waste was
recycled or composted and this figure rose to just below 8% in 2006/07 which equates to
0.25 metric tonnes per full time equivalent student/staff. The amount of 0.25 metric
tonnes per fte was the same for 2007/8 but it is notable that the University is the fastest
growing university in the UK and both the staff and student population grew.
All waste generated by the University is currently removed from its property, either by
contractors, or in the case of recyclables, by the local city authority. The Facilities
Department maintains records such as consignment notes and is responsible for
ensuring that contractors have the relevant licences. The University’s main waste
contractor is currently Worcester City Council.
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Table 9 below summarises recycling and re-use for 2006/07 and 2007/8.
Table 9 : Recycling/re-use Initiatives 2006/07 and 2007/8
Material for Recycling
Paper
Withdrawn library books
Organisation
Used
Worcester City
Council
Print Waste
Print Waste
Total amount
recycled in tonnes
06/07
19.54
07/08
15.4
7.00
10.4
6.5
6.00
Confidential paper
Shred It
4.6
7.6
Plastic bottles
Worcester City
Council
CDL
Mercury
Recycling
ChemTech
Waste
Management
Polyprint
Mailing Films
Aramark
2.72
2.1
6.00
0.33
8.00
1.1
1.77
4.4
0.006
0.008
4.62
4.5
UW grounds
Worcester City
Council
BCR Global
Textiles
78.00
17.64
tbc
9.8
-
tbc
Greensource
Solutions
1.00
1.9
Computers
Fluorescent Tubes
Fridges, freezers
Polyfilm
Organic Waste
Glass bottles/jars
Textiles proceeds to
Meningitis Trust/Acorns
Children’s Hospice
Toner and printer
cartridges
The future
There is a huge potential for waste reduction at source, better waste segregation, more
repair and re-use/ re-distribution of educational and office equipment and resources and
recycling will all assist in this process. There is already a strong focus on improving
recycling and composting to make Worcester among the best performing of the
universities in the UK for its recycling and composting activity over the long-term. The
provision of the recycling compound, more high profile recycling areas has already
assisted in this, as has the high - profile joint sticker campaign for internal and external
waste and recycling receptacles.
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The figures above indicate that there is great scope for the University to improve its
performance in the sustainable management of waste. Beyond this, however, is the
issue of the University’s future growth. The amount of waste generated and the costs of
disposing of it are dependent on the number of staff, the number of students living on and
visiting the campus, and the number of visitors. Possible measures of institutional activity
include financial turnover, floor space occupied, and the total numbers working on
campus. However, at the University of Worcester, the full-time equivalent (fte) of
students is probably the best indicator because it represents the most important driver of
waste creation – people. The total number (headcount) of both full- and part-time
students in 2006/07 was 8593. This figure is projected to rise to a total of 11,809 by
2012. This increase will impact significantly on waste generation and waste disposal
costs unless new waste management procedures are adopted.
An important element in moving towards zero waste is the repair and/or re-use of
redundant goods to prolong their lives which will reduce financial outlay on new goods
and reduce the environmental cost of landfill. However, the re-use – or re-distribution of
goods – necessitates connecting those with items they no longer have a use for, with
those who do have a use for them, or who can repair or refurbish the goods into a usable
product again. The University has already engendered strong links with local, regional
and national community groups and organisations in an effort to ensure that still useable
goods are passed on for repair and re-use. It will be important to strengthen and extend
these links in future.
Katy Boom/Jan Dyer
May 2009
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