Management of Student Waste group
A Management of Student Waste group was established, resulting in a team of people from Southampton City Council’s Waste and Fleet Transport Division, representatives from both of Southampton’s universities, Students’ Unions and the community outlining issues and solutions. The remit of the group was to plan a campaign to better manage student waste and enviro-crime issues.
Representatives from the team undertook:
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Weekly monitoring in Polygon; working in pairs with two/three roads each. In 2008, resources were spent issuing letters/information through the post, door knocking has had a greater impact.
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Face-to-face engagement with students to explain recycling, informing them to take their bins off the pavement and advising that litter in front gardens attracted vermin. It was also advised that fines (fixed penalty notices) could be issued for non-compliance, as with any resident in the city.
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Information was provided, including: waste and recycling collection calendars, recycling instructions, why they should take their bins off the pavements.
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Names and addresses were recorded to establish an audit trail.
Since then:
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Student Ambassadors have been involved in a door-knocking campaign to deliver recycling advice and monitor student recycling patterns; response was very high and we were impressed by our students' recycling regimes.
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The University's new Love Your Bin campaign seeks to use social media to encoruage correct recycling and waste disposal methods amongst the student body.