With the recent declaration of a Climate Emergency, one obvious win for the University to reduce its negative impact on the environment is to improve how we manage our waste and to recycle more effectively.

As such, during the summer of 2019, additional recycling and general waste bins will be installed around the Brayford and Riseholme Campuses. Alongside this, individual desk bins in offices will cease to be emptied by our cleaning team and removed where possible. We’re encouraging staff and students to separate their waste and place it into the central recycling and general waste bins, to increase the amount of waste that’s recycled. The impact of the desk bin plastic liners is also being considered, as the University currently uses a shocking 60,000 of these non-recyclable bags per year – something we would like to eliminate altogether.

In 2017/18 the university had a recycling rate of 20.7% and after the trials of removing desk bins from 4 buildings around campus, we have seen this increase to 25.4%. This means we’re still putting almost 75% of the waste produced by the University into the General Waste bins, but it also means that by removing desk bins from the remaining buildings on campus we should see this figure vastly improve.

FAQs

What can and can’t be recycled?
Dry, clean mixed recyclables can be placed in the green recycling bins. Items you can put in these bins are:

Paper: Try the scrunch test, if it stays scrunched you can recycle it – you cannot recycle paper towels or blue kitchen roll

Paper: Remember that paper that is wet, flocked, glittered or shiny can’t go into your recycling bin

Plastics: All plastic bottles can go into your recycling bin, please wash them out and put the lids in the general waste bin

Plastics: Clean ‘sturdy’ yoghurt pots and margarine tubs can go into the recycling bin, please put the lids in the general waste bin. Any plastic salad pots should be rinsed as well, however, please check the bottom of the pot as it may not be recyclable!

Glass: Remember Glass cannot go into the mixed recycling bin

Food Waste: Remember Food waste cannot go into the mixed recycling bin

Coffee Cups: The FoodLinc coffee cups are recyclable as long as they are clean. All other coffee cups aren’t

If in doubt – leave it out. Anything else should be put in general waste to avoid contamination.

Will my office bin be removed?
All desk bins will be removed and either re-purposed, recycled or sent to our general waste facility for them to create fuel. The cleaners will no longer empty individual bins, giving them more time to focus on other cleaning duties.

Any more questions? You can get in touch with the Estates Support Desk, estatessupport@lincoln.ac.uk or 01522 88 6777.