Waste and recycling

Refusing the offer of items you don't need can help eliminate waste you have to dispose of and helps the environment by limiting the amount of waste produced.

• Remember your reusable bags when you go shopping and if your purchases are bagged for you without asking don't be afraid to re-bag them into your reusable bag and return the single use bag back to the cashier.
• Refuse the offer of freebie items like pens and USB drives unless you'll actually use them.
• Don't accept single use items like straws and cutlery if you won't use them.
• Don't accept printed receipts if you can receive it by email.

Don’t buy more than what you actually need - this helps the environment and your finances. Here’s how:

1. Avoid buying products that have excessive packaging.
2. Drink tap water, not bottled - you can find fountains to refill your bottle in all catering areas and numerous other location across campus. Tap water in the UK is save to drink.
3. Avoid cooking/ordering too much food - unless you are able to save the leftovers for a second meal.
4. Where possible, choose products that will last a long time or that can be reused or repaired, instead of disposable items.
5. Only print or photocopy when really necessary - use double-sided or reduce the size if you can.

Use items more than once so they last longer, or give them away to someone who needs them. Here are some tips:

1. When ordering drinks, use a reusable cup or ask for china cups instead of using disposable cups. Disposable cups are not recycled if collected on campus.
2. Use a reusable water bottle and refill it with tap water. The impact of bottled water on natural resources is 3,500 times higher than for tap water.
3. Take a reusable bag when you go shopping.
4. If you are a member of staff, use the Solent Reuse Portal on Planon to advertise office items and furniture you no longer need; find office equipment that other staff are happy to give away, for use on campus at and home.
5. If things break, repair them, mend clothing or take broken items for repair.

You might also call this upcycling, taking something and altering it for a different use

• Turn old worn clothing into patches for repairing other clothes
• Turn old t-shirts into reusable bags
• Old food jars can be cleaned and used for storage 
• Vegetable scraps can be made into soup, keep a bag in the freezer to save the scraps until you have enough to make a batch of soup!

There's loads of ideas and how tos on the internet to help give you inspiration and instruction

Recycling is the last resort where an item can no longer be repaired, re-used or re-purposed.

Be sure to correctly separate recyclable materials from general rubbish, and take the time to clean containers to prevent contamination of other items. One dirty/wet item can contaminate the whole bin meaning all your efforts are wasted as everything will end up going in the general rubbish.

Make sure you dispose of the item in the correct way.

Check the recycling bin to find out what items are accepted, electronic items must be taken to specialist collection points or you can arrange collection from a specialist website. Clothing can go into clothing bins or taken to some high street stores. Old make up and toiletries and their containers can be taken to some high street chemists or you can buy recycling bags online which can be dropped at parcel collection lockers.

General waste (rubbish) and recycling bins are located in offices, lecture rooms and corridors. You'll notice that all our bins have a small general rubbish section on the right and a larger recycling section on the left, our aim is to recycle as much as possible and encourage everyone to choose the correct disposal route. Posters attached to the bins show you which side your rubbish should go.

Disposable coffee cups, Tetrapaks, veg-ware and sandwich containers cannot be recycled, even if the packaging says it can, as they are made up of composite materials that first require separation before the individual components can be recycled and facilities capable of this are not located locally.

Consider changing to a re-usable alternative instead of purchasing disposable items.

Items that should go into the general waste, include:

• ‘Dirty’ packaging, including contaminated with food (although you could also rinse or empty it if you had the chance and pop the packaging into the mixed recycling bin instead!).
• Disposable cups.
• Polystyrene.
• Paper towels and tissues.
• Crisp packets, food and drink cartons ad wrappers, including anything made of composite materials like Tetrapaks.
• Shredded paper containing non-sensitive or confidential content - this is too small to be handled in the recycling machinery.
• Where no food waste bin is available – food waste including coffee granules and tea bags and anything substantially wet.

Available in all staff office kitchens.

These are for food waste only although tea bags are accepted, the waste from these caddies goes to an anaerobic digestion facility which turns the food waste into energy.

This is a rapid composting process and uses heat to speed up the decomposition of the waste.

Please only dispose of food waste in these caddies, items such as veg-ware containers takes much longer to break down and are designed to be added to a standard composting process. These type of containers should be disposed of in the general waste bins.

Yes, please
Food (cooked and uncooked), tea bags, bread, fruit skins, uneaten sandwiches and pizza crusts.

No, thanks
Tissues, wooden stirrers, wrapping or packaging of any sort.

A small number of soft food packaging bins are located around the EPT and Warsash campuses, these bins collect crisp packets, sweet and chocolate wrappers which are then sent back to ReFactory who turn these plastics back into useable items such as furniture and planters which can be purchased directly from their website.

Accepted plastic waste items for recycling

• Crisp packets
• Snack and sweet wrappers
• Flexible soft food packaging such as bread bags and pasta packaging
• Clean take out cartons and films
• Ice lolly wrappers

Unaccepted items – hazardous, unsuitable or glass

• Food and liquid waste (or items coated with)
• Cigarette waste
• Medicinal blister packs (can be recycled in Boots stores)
• Electronic waste (phones, laptops etc)
• Biodegradable plastics/plant-based plastics
• Glass

Cans, paper, glass, cardboard, plastic bottles, and plastic pots, tubs and trays can all be put in general recycling. These should be free of any food or liquid contamination.

See what should go in the recycling bin

Staff are encouraged to set up their own milk bottle top collection in their office or kitchen and when they have a large enough amount, drop off at Lush in West Quay.

It must be milk bottle tops only (blue green, red or purple) and not include fizzy drink or water bottle tops.

Milk bottle tops are made of high-grade HDPE plastic and keeping them separate from other recyclable materials allows them to be turned into pellets, melted down and re-made into new items including traffic cones, children's play slides, and more milk bottle tops.

Drop off points for battery recycling can be found at the estates helpdesk, the Students’ Union, and A101.

Battery types that can be recycled here are 6V, D, C, AA, AAA, 9V and button batteries. Lithium batteries must be fully discharged before being disposed of.

Batteries must NOT be disposed of in the general waste or recycling bins.

Batteries are also collected at most local supermarkets.

While individuals aren't able to recycle their electrical items on campus, the University works with a scheme called Stone Group who collect all our electrical items, from laptops and PCs, to fridges. Stone Group assess our PC equipment and refurbish it before distributing it to schools and colleges to use. 

Stone provides Solent with updates on how much equipment has been able to be reused in its entirety and what has been broken down into component parts for refurbishment and recycling each quarter and you can view the latest report below. 

Solent WEEE circular economy infographic

Contact lens users can recycle disposable contact lenses, blister packs and foil covers at Boots Opticians, Upper Floor 19-29 Above Bar, Southampton.

Click here for more details >

Plastic items that can't be recycled through your council household collection can be taken to Associated Polymer Resources located in Eastleigh.

They can accept items such as:

• Patio tables and chairs
• Buckets
• Drums (must be washed out – any size)
• Washing baskets
• Washing up bowls
• Cutlery trays
• Plastic containers/crates/drawers/trays
• Storage boxes
• Tool boxes/cases/chests
• Guttering and downpipe
• Children’s play houses
• Children’s sand/ball pits
• Water butts
• Compost containers
• Dustbins
• Children’s chairs
• Plastic lids
• Plastic trolleys

Soft plastics, plastic films, plastic bags and wrapping, flexible plastics – whatever you call them; these can now be recycled at your local supermarket.

More information can be found here: https://www.recyclenow.com/repeat-the-cycle

There is a collection point for stamps in A101. Aim to leave 1cm of envelope or packaging around each stamp (stamps that have been trimmed less or more will still be accepted). More information can be found on the RNIB website.

The MyGroup and British Beauty Council have created a take-back program which safely recycles a wide range of products and packaging, including hazardous items and blister packs.

They are also working to encourage brands to engage with reuse and refill systems, prevent stock from going to landfill and recycle empties.

You can find your nearest recycling point on their website. They accept

• compacts,
• mascara tubes,
• lipsticks, glosses and balms,
• nail polish bottles,
• perfumes and fragrances,
• eyeshadows/makeup palettes,
• tubes of 100ml or less,
• soaps and handwash pumps,
• skincare bottles and pumps,
• beauty jars and containers.

Waste placed in the recycling bins is taken to a materials recycling facility (MRF) to be separated. The recovered materials are then sold to companies that use them to make new products.

• Paper and card - two-thirds reprocessed in UK, remaining third reprocessed in Europe, with a small fraction sent to South East Asia
• Glass – reprocessed at Recresco in Southampton
• Metals - UK
• Wood - UK
• Plastics
  • HDPE and PET (e.g. plastic bottles) – UK
  • Other grades of plastic (e.g. yogurt pots, margarine tubs and food trays) – UK and Europe
• Hazardous waste and waste electronic and electrical equipment - UK

See what happens at a materials recycling facility

Food waste collected from the University goes through a process called anaerobic digestion at a facility in Dorset. This turns the biodegradable materials into compost which can be used in agriculture. Biogas is produced as the materials are digested and is captured to produce energy.

See what happens at an anaerobic digestion facility

Waste placed in the general waste bins, along with any contaminated bags of recycling, is taken for incineration at an energy from waste (EfW) facility that produces electricity during the process. Although this is preferable to landfill, recycling is much more environmentally friendly.

See how energy can be produced from waste

Waste electrical and electronic equipment, also referred to as WEEE, includes all items which require a supply of electrical power to operate. This ranges from desk lamps and laptops, to fridges and mobile phones. 

As all electrical and electronic equipment includes a number of components that if disposed of incorrectly can cause harm to the environment we have a duty of care to ensure waste we have is disposed of properly and wherever possible components that can be reused, are reused.

We partner with a company called Stone, who collect our electrical and IT equipment and re-use and recycle as much of it as possible. 

Laptops and other IT equipment that has come to the end of its useful life for the University is refurbished and provided to schools and charity organisations where the same equipment can continue to be serviceable for many more years.

Stone provide us with quarterly updates on how recycling our equipment saves us from making a negative impact on the environment.