Waste reduction campaign launched at the University of Nottingham

In May 2018 we asked our staff and students to inform us of their thoughts on the amount of single-use plastic thrown away each year on campus. We had an incredible response.

More than 99% of the people who responded — over 3,000 respondents in total — said they want to help reduce single-use plastic waste. The majority went even further in suggesting ways they could personally support waste reduction.

A working group (involving representatives from the sustainability team, Faculty of Science, catering and procurement and the Students’ Union) has assessed all of the responses and used them to shape a number of challenging targets that we can all get involved with.

Today we’re launching these targets as part of a dedicated new campaign: ‘#WasteNott’.

The WasteNott campaign sets out a number of actions that we can all take to help meet targets developed from feedback left in the survey. These are big changes that could add up to make an ever bigger difference.

The initial phase of the campaign will focus on selected key areas identified in the survey – with targets developed based on respondent feedback. Our initial focus will be on high impact areas – such as single-use plastic bottles, plastic cutlery and straws, and coffee cups.

To help support a more sustainable approach, we will install more water coolers around campus and make reusable drinks cups available at all University catering outlets. Other actions include introducing a levy on disposable hot drink cups. Any income from the levy will be used to find projects to reduce our waste output, including subsidising reusable cups.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Shearer West said: “Our research has a well-deserved reputation for supporting a more sustainable planet in greener sources of energy, food supply and construction. It is only right that our daily campus activity reflects this.

Reducing the amount of single-use plastics on campus is an important part of our wider global outlook, ethical values and commitment to environmental sustainability — small changes in our daily behaviours can deliver significant lasting benefits.”