The University has a legal requirement to pre-treat the waste it produces i.e. separating out all possible recyclable materials.
During the 2021-2022 academic year, the University produced over 350 tonnes of waste from its halls of residence, academic buildings, catering outlets and grounds, and recycled an estimated 43% through segregation of food waste, paper, card, plastic bottles, cans and glass (nb, this figure is likely to be an overestimation because the food waste and glass bins are an average weight per bin). This waste could have been minimised by following the waste hierarchy, which would have reduced both the cost to the University and the impact on the environment.
The waste hierarchy ranks waste management options according to what is best for the environment:
- Prevent producing waste in the first place
- Re-use (cleaning, repairing, refurbishing)
- Recycle what’s possible
- Recovery to produce energy and/or materials
- Disposal as a last resort
Collections
Teaching and Office Buildings
Waste and Recycling are collected and brought to a central compound for collection by our waste and recycling contractor.
Hope Park accommodation
Waste and Recycling are collected and brought to a central compound.
Waste - compacted and collected as required
Recycling -Tuesday (weekly)
Glass -Tuesday (weekly)
Creative Campus accommodation external bin stores
Waste - Monday, Wednesday and Friday (weekly)
Recycling - Monday (weekly)
Glass - Tuesday (fortnightly)
Aigburth Park accommodation external bin stores
Waste - Tuesday and Friday (weekly)
Recycling - Thursday (weekly)
Glass - Thursday (fortnightly)
Initiatives
Bring your own mug when purchasing a drink or pay 25p for a single-use/disposable one.
Pack for Good at the end of term:
What to donate:
- Clothes, shoes and accessories
- Books, CDs, DVDs and games
- NO dirty or broken items, pillows or duvets, knives, hangars, bikes and helmets
How:
- Simply bag up your unwanted things
Where:
- Drop the bags off in the red collection banks in the Car Parks at Aigburth Park, Creative Campus (by Hopkins Hall), and at Hope Park (in the FML car park by Green Lane Building and in the HCA car park by Hope Park Sports)
When:
- Whenever you fill your bags. The red collection banks are available now.
- Red British Heart Foundation red collection banks have been placed around campus
The University produces a number of waste streams, which are collected and recycled. It is important to place the correct items in the right bin, as any contamination (the wrong thing in the wrong bin) will result in it all being treated as general waste.
We currently recycle:
Batteries – All AA and similar type batteries up to a 6V battery can be recycled in the pink battery containers. Car batteries, industrial batteries or batteries with wires cannot be collected. Collection boxes are available behind the Gateway Service Desk, Aigburth Reception, and at the Capstone receptions.
Brochures- use the recycling stations (Blue lid or Green lid).
Cans (food and drink) – use the recycling stations (Red lid or Green lid). Please rinse out if required.
Cardboard (please flatten) – please leave by your nearest recycling collection point for collection.
CDs and DVDs - put in the external Textile Banks. All donations are collected by the British Heart Foundation and sold to raise monies for the Charity. The banks can be found at Aigburth Park, Creative Campus (between Hopkins Hall and the Cornerstone), and at Hope Park (in the FML carpark by Green Lane Building and in the HCA car park by Hope Park Sports).
Clingfilm - put in the general waste (Black lid)
Clothes and Textiles (including shoes and handbags) - put in the external Textile Banks. All donations are collected by the British Heart Foundation and sold to raise monies for the Charity. The banks can be found at Aigburth Park, Creative Campus (between Hopkins Hall and the Cornerstone) and at Hope Park (in the FML carpark by Green Lane Building and in the HCA car park by Hope Park Sports).
Coca-Cola cups - please put in the general waste (Black lid) or recycle alongside food and drink carton banks at Liverpool City Council's recycling centers. The nearest two are Otterspool Recycling Centre and Old Swan Recycling Centre.
Costa cups - please put in the general waste (Black lid)or recycle alongside tetrapacksatLiverpool City Council's recycling centers. The nearest two are Otterspool Recycling Centre and Old Swan Recycling Centre.
Takeaway/single-use cups- please put in the general waste (Black lid) or recycle alongside tetrapacks atLiverpool City Council's recycling centers. The nearest two are Otterspool Recycling Centre and Old Swan Recycling Centre.
Computers, monitors and IT equipment – any IT equipment is collected by IT Services for collection and is sent for reuse or recycling.
Confidential materials (electronic) - Please contact the IT helpdesk for more information. Electronic media must not be placed in the consoles, these are for paper only. Confidential materials stored on CDs can be placed in the confidential bags (requested via the Estates helpdesk) for destruction; however, they must be kept separate i.e. not within the same bag as confidential paper.
Confidential materials (paper)
For guidance on confidential materials, please refer to the University's GDPR pages or the Legal Services team.
Consoles
- Please place any confidential paper within the consoles which are located across campus. These are collected on a monthly basis by B&M Shredding.
Hope Park and Creative Campus - 24th February, 24th March, 21st April, 19th May, 16th June, 14th July, 11th August, 8th September, 6th October, 3rd November, 1st December
Shredding bags (clear-outs)
- Order the number of confidential bags you require via the Estates Helpdesk
- Fill to the maximum line (confidential material only; please remove any folders, plastic pockets/wallets, bulldog clips etc) and secure the bag.The sacks are paper so that they can be shredded without the contents being visible; therefore do not overfill them (use the marker on the bags as guidance) or place any folders etc within the bags as they may split.
- Once full, request a job via the Estates Helpdesk to collect the bags (detailing the number for collection)
- Return any unused bags to the Estates Office
NB, Prior to collection it is your responsibility to keep the bags in a secure location such as a locked room, do not leave them in a public space or by the recycling stations.
Do not dispose of non-paper items in the consoles/bags.
Electrical appliances – these are collected and recycled by Estates.
Envelopes - they can be reused if they are in good condition, if not, please use the recycling stations (Blue lid or Green lid)
Floppy discs - use the general waste bins (Black lid). If confidential, please see Confidential materials (electronic)
Glass – collections points are available within halls of residence, and external collection points are available in the FML car park by Green Lane Building, by the EDEN building and by Hopkins Hall and St Michaels.
Light bulbs/fluorescent tubes – these are collected and recycled by Estates.
Magazines and Newspapers - use the recycling stations (Blue lid or Green lid),
Plastic bags - use the general waste bin (Black lid), or some larger ASDA, Tesco, M&S and Sainsbury's stores across Liverpool now have a plastic bag and film recycling bin.
Plastic Bottles – use the recycling stations (Yellow lid or Green lid). Please rinse out, if required.
Paper (magazines, newspapers, office paper, envelopes, brochures, cereal packet thickness card) – use the recycling stations (Blue lid or Green lid).
NB, takeaway/single use cups and sandwich wrappers cannot be recycled. Please place them in the general waste (Black lid)
If you have a large amount of paper recycling, please contact domestic services on x3522 to arrange for the delivery of clear plastic bags.
Stamps - a collection box has been placed behind the Gateway reception desk for the RNIB
Starbucks cups - please put in the general waste bin (Black lid) or recycle alongside tetrapacks at Liverpool City Council's recycling centers. The nearest two are Otterspool Recycling Centre and Old Swan Recycling Centre.
Tetrapaks and juice cartons - use the general waste bin (Black lid). They can be recycled at Liverpool City Council's recycling centers. The nearest two are Otterspool Recycling Centre and Old Swan Recycling Centre.
Tin foil - please put in the general waste bin (Black lid)
Toners– these are collected and recycled by IT Services.
Please check the Recycle Now webpages to find out what you can recycle and where.
Liverpool Hope University has introduced centralised recycling facilities across the campuses in teaching areas, offices and circulation spaces, so that staff and students are never too far away from a recycling station. There are four separate receptacles for recycling paper (Blue lid), plastic bottles (Yellow lid) and food and drinks cans (Red lid). Waste that cannot be recycled (including takeaway cups and food wrappers) is collected separately at the same station (Black lid). Cardboard is also collected, but it must be flattened and left by the recycling stations before it is collected.
Staff offices
The bins within individual staff offices are no longer emptied by the domestic services team, it is the member of staff’s responsibility to take their bins to the nearest recycling station and separate out their waste into recycling and general waste.
Catering outlets
New bins have been placed in Our Place and the EDEN Cafe, which makes it easier to recycle your plastic bottles and cans (Green lid).
Coca-Cola, Costa, Starbucks Takeaway/single use cups and food packaging MUST go in the general waste (Black lid)
Student halls of residence
Recycling bins (Green lid) in each kitchen make it easy to recycle cans, tins, glass, plastic bottles, paper and cardboard.
All cans and glass jars etc. must be clean before going in the recycling bins.
Textile banks
The Textile banks can be found at Aigburth Park, Creative Campus (between Hopkins Hall and the Cornerstone) and at Hope Park (in the FML carpark by Green Lane Building and in the HCA car park by Hope Park Sports).
Living in Merseyside or Halton
Guidelines can be found on the Merseyside Waste and Recycling Authority website detailing what can be recycled and in the Merseyside and Halton Recycling Guidelines document.
The Recycle Now webpages will show what you can recycle and where.
Think - Reduce – Reuse – Recycle. The best way to reduce the amount of waste is not to create it in the first place:
- Do you need to purchase the item?
- Can goods be supplied with less packaging?
- When purchasing new items, look for durable items that are built to last
- Make proper use of the University’s recycling bins
Did you know? During the 2014-2015 academic year, the University put 148 tonnes of recyclables into the general waste at an additional cost of £9,000.
Items can either be recycled into the same product or into new materials. This conserves our precious resources and saves energy.
Take proactive measures to reduce the number of handouts taken to meetings by emailing hand-outs, power-point presentations, agendas, previous minutes and papers to meeting attendees, or by using the projector facilities.
Think before you print:
- Can you scan and email documents rather than printing and posting?
- Use track changes, instead of printing and making notes
- Do you really need to print out that email?
- Only print the relevant pages
- Print double sided (typically reduces paper consumption by around 40%)
- Don’t print in colour, unless absolutely necessary
Use glass and crockery in meetings instead of plastic or paper alternatives.
Refill a water bottle instead of buying a new bottle or using plastic cup every time - water stations are available for use in Fresh Hope, LTC Foyer, EDEN cafe, Chapters and Hope Park Sports Foyer.
Collect all paper that has been printed on one side and re-use it for scrap paper.
Use old envelopes for sending internal mail.
Cancel junk mail and unwanted publications to reduce the amount of waste that has to be thrown away.
Register with the Mail Preference Service to reduce your junk mail.
Use rechargeable batteries rather than disposable ones.
- We sent zero waste to landfill: 100% was either reused, recycled or used for Energy From Waste
- The University's old cooking oil is collected by Olleco for conversion into bio-fuel for their vehicles
- In 2018-2019 (October to July), our End of Year Pack for Good event in the student halls of residence collected 444 bags of unwanted items (including kitchen items, clothing, and stationery), which generated around £6,216 for the British Heart Foundation. The Pack for Good Campaign is run across Merseyside and includes the three Universities, private accommodation and local authorities. In 2018, nearly £48,000 was raised and saved the weight of 4.5 elephants from going to waste.
- The students collected over 20 boxes of kitchen items which were donated to the local asylum seekers charity
- In partnership with our library, Better World Books reused or recycled 4.3 tonnes of books
- The Salvation Army received 162 pairs of curtains and 90 desktop fridges following the refurbishment of student accommodation.
- Using recycled materials in the manufacturing process uses considerably less energy and produces less emissions than that required for producing new materials from raw materials (www.wrap.org.uk):
- Two glass bottles = enough energy to boil enough water for five cups of tea
- One aluminium can = enough energy to power a TV set for 3 hours
- One plastic bottle = enough energy to power a 60W light bulb for six hours
- Each year, in the UK, we throw away £12.5 billion worth of good food, costing the average family almost £60 per month. If we stopped wasting food, we could avoid 17 million tonnes of CO2 being emitted each year, the same as taking 1 in 4 cars off the road (www.lovefoodhatewaste.com).
- UK households have an average of £4,000 worth of clothes, but a third of those haven’t been worn in the last year, and we throw more than 30% of our clothing in the bin. All of our clothing can either be re-used or recycled.
- If no longer used, pass them on.
- Donate them to the collection bins which are around campus.
- Recycle them.
- Glass, steel and aluminium cans can be endlessly recycled with no loss in quality (www.wrap.org)
- Each year in the UK we use 10.4 million tonnes of paper and cardboard and it takes up to 40,000L of water to make every tonne
- It takes 7 days for a recycled newspaper to come back as newspaper again
- You can now recycle your soft contact lenses and blister packs via Terracycle (in partnership with Acuvue) at participating Boots and Independent Opticians.
- Medicine blister packs (empty) can now be recycled at participating Superdrug stores and independent chemists
- The Body Shop and L'Occitane are now collecting any brand of clean, empty cosmetics and beauty packaging for recycling
- You can now recycle your inhalers at participating chemists via GSK.
