Waste Awareness

Our Aim

As a society, we are consuming natural resources at an unsustainable rate. If every country consumed natural resources at the rate the UK does, we would need three planets to live on. The most crucial threat is from dangerous climate change. Our goal here at Birkbeck is to make the transition towards the “One Planet Living”.

Reducing waste is an important contributor to this goal. Each year in the UK, we generate about 100 million tonnes of waste from households, commerce and industry.  Most of this ends up in landfill where the biodegradable part generates methane (a potent greenhouse gas), while valuable energy is used in extracting and processing new raw material.

Birkbeck’s aim must be to reduce waste, most products we use on a daily basis should be re-used or their materials recycled. Energy should be recovered from other wastes where possible.

For a small amount of residual material, landfill will be necessary.

Waste Management

Over the past couple of years there has been an increase in legislation surrounding waste management and disposal. This has resulted in tighter controls being imposed on the disposal of waste. Section 34 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, places a duty of care on anyone who produces or imports, keeps or stores, transports, treats or disposes of waste. Birkbeck, University of London acknowledges that the waste it generates falls under this duty of care and that it is required to comply with various responsibilities as a result. Birkbeck accepts its responsibility to ensure that:

• all waste is stored safely and securely to prevent it causing pollution;
• companies engaged to collect all waste types produced by Birkbeck are properly licensed and authorised;
• reference to this license is recorded on transfer on a Waste Transfer Note that is signed and retained by both the Support Services Officer and the Waste Contractor.

Progress

Since the Environment Agency's waste strategy in 2000, we as a nation have made significant progress.

• Recycling and composting of waste has quadrupled since 1996-97, achieving 27% in 2005-06.
• The recycling of packaging waste has increased from 27% to 56% since 1998.
• Less waste is being landfilled, with a 9% fall between 2000-01 and 2004-5.
• Waste growth has also reduced with municipal waste growing less quickly than the economy at 0.5% per year.
• Here at Birkbeck 2007/08 waste mass recycling totalled 90 tonnes and 2008/09 figures indicate a 2 tonne reduction to 88 tonnes (these figures relate to all items we recycled i.e. paper, cardboard and glass)
• Waste mass other methods for 2007/08 was 333 tonnes and in 2008/09 it was 322 tonnes (waste mass other methods denotes landfill)

Vision

Despite major progress since 2000, England’s performance on waste still lags behind many of our European countries. As an Institution we have to share responsibility, how can Birkbeck make a difference?

• Only purchase products using more recycled materials and less newly extracted raw materials. Ensure products we purchase are less wasteful and that we take responsibility for the environmental impact of the product throughout its life span.
• We can reduce the amount of packaging and source products that are less wasteful by dedicating to our supplier.
• At present we have four 1100 litre euro bins which are stored at the Institute of Education’s service yard which are collected daily by our Waste Service Provider. The contents of this waste are sent to landfill. By 2012 we aim to reduce the amount sent to landfill by reducing the euro bins to two and replacing one purely for cans and plastics.
• We have also four euro bins located within the cage area between Birkbeck and ULU these are purely for the disposal of paper and cardboard. They are collected twice a week by our Waste Service Provider, and taken to Kemsley Mill Sittingbourne Kent where it is recycled and made into paper or card products.
• There is also one glass euro bin located in the alleyway between Birkbeck and ULU this is collected on an ad hoc basis by our Waste Service Provider. The glass is taken to Veolia Materials Recovery in Greenwich sorted and sold to a network of local, national and international re-processors.
• Within Birkbeck Estate will have the opportunity to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill by separating our waste for recycling. For further information on how to separate your waste our guide.

These pages are a new online resource to encourage and guide users to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle their waste within the Birkbeck Estate.