Green Portsmouth

New waste scheme aims to achieve a 70% recycling rate with zero landfill

From the 2nd of April 2013 bins in academic buildings changed to make it easier to recycle.  With the exception of food, whatever you used to put in the general waste and recycling bins goes in just one bin.  Food waste goes into new food caddies and the waste is composted in Dorset - you can find out more about the composting process here.  You can see what the new standard bins, food caddies and meridian bins look like here.

Food residue in standard bins

A bit of food residue on waste is ok; for all items, overall residue levels should be only small amounts that won't cover other items in the bin.   For example, crumbs are fine, some salad dressing residue in packaging is fine, used sauce sachets are fine.

Individual office bins

Individual offices have retained under-desk bins without liners so that you can collect your waste throughout the day and empty it into the nearest standard bin at your convenience.  If you don't need your bin, your caretaker will be happy to take it away for you.

What happens to waste once it's collected?

Our waste contactor (Biffa) has a waste facility in the UK that's able to sort and recover all recyclables from mixed office waste, with the exception of food.  You can see how mixed materials are recovered in the video below.

Materials that aren't recyclable go to a waste-to-energy plant so that all waste is safely disposed of.  Recycling saves valuable materials from going to landfill and avoids the extraction and use of virgin raw materials - this saves energy and resources.  

We trialled this scheme in Richmond and King Henry – it was so successful it resulted in VCE approving the proposal to roll it out to all academic buildings.  Recycling rates at Richmond jumped from 40% to 70% as a result of the scheme, and have stayed in the region of 70% both in and out of teaching times. 

The table below details how to dispose of particular items of waste.  Contact us at greenportsmouth@port.ac.uk if the item you need to dispose of isn't listed, or if you need to discuss bin provision in your area. 

Recycling and waste management Statistics

Over a period of two years the University has improved its recycling rate from 25% to 40% overall. 

Microchips on both the green space and general waste bins allows weight data per bin to be provided on a monthly basis.  The more we recycle, the more money we save.

Recycling rates per building can usually then be calculated and monitored - see our Targets and Statistics page for more information.  Some buildings are achieving 70% recycling rates but the amount of waste thrown in skips brings our overall recycling rate down to 40%.