Recycling & How Students Can Help Out

Recycling helps prevent the emissions of greenhouse gases and water pollutants. This can do a world of good, such as: protecting eco-systems and wildlife, saving energy, slowing climate change, conserving natural resources and even lowering youth unemployment.

Your involvement can be as small as allocating rubbish into the correct bin or as big as organising a community litter clean-up. Whatever effort you’ll go to, it makes a huge difference.

We recently cleaned up the parks and streets of Fallowfield alongside the helpful UoM Netball team, which had some fantastic results.

Ways To Help

Plan Your Purchases

The very first thing you can do is use less. Choose products that are refillable, or items that use less non-recyclable materials. Have a look if what you purchase is biodegradable and be conscious in your decisions.

Buy cheap means you buy twice. Instead, always opt for good quality. It’s easy as a student to buy the cheapest item, sometimes you have no choice. When you buy a bag for life, sure it costs 50p but it will serve you for years. You can also grab a snazzy tote bag or use your rucsac rather than the cheapest bag at Tesco.

Another tip: try not to get caught out in the need to buy water, instead purchase a re-usable bottle.

Allocating Your Items

Here’s the breakdown of what kinds of things should go in each bin, depending on the colour.

Blue: Recyclable Waste

e.g. Paper, cardboard, food and drink cartons/tins, plastic bottles, glass bottles and jars

Brown: Garden & Food Waste

e.g. Grass cuttings, prunings, leaves, flowers, meat and bones, egg shells, cooked and uncooked food, teabags

Green/Grey: Non Recyclable Waste

e.g. General refuse and pet waste, plastic bags, polystyrene, light bulbs, nappies, glassware

Re-Use

Here are a few ways you can find another use for resources and materials that otherwise would’ve been disposed of:

– Find a new purpose for glass, plastic and cardboard.

– Supply artists with creative materials that you don’t use to be made into something permanent.

– Convert old sheets, towels and clothing into washing rags.

– Any old furniture you don’t want can be disassembled for its wood, which is handy for any DIY lovers.