Winning at Waste

January 9, 2024

As we look back on December, it’s often a month of excess and overconsumption. It’s the month which creates a mountain of waste and recycling for us to drown in until the first bin collection after the festive holidays. Many of us will have sifted through the sacks of wrapping paper, sorted through plastic packaging and wrestled with a record number of cardboard boxes – it’s a tedious task and one which gets little recognition!

This is not the case on campus. Your noble waste and recycling efforts have not gone unnoticed. In fact, we can look back on 2023 and celebrate some waste related wins. Dylan Jones, Waste and Recycling Officer at FX Plus, has diligently been calculating what we throw away and has reported increases in recycling and a reduction in overall waste generated on Penryn campus when compared with last year’s figures.

Here are some 2022/2023 statistics (when compared with 2021/2022):

• Food waste recycling has increased by 38%
• All recycling has increased by 5.3%
• All general waste generated on Penryn campus has reduced by 7%
• Over 10,000 tetra pak cartons have been recycled since last January (2023), and we now average around 1,000 tetra pak cartons recycled each month!

Waste and recycling are ongoing challenges, but the above statistics are an encouraging indication that our campus community is moving in the right direction, an endeavour that which takes us closer towards our sustainability goals and reduces our negative impacts on the environment. Well done, you! Keep up the good work.