Waste that saves (From Surrey Comet)

Waste that saves

9:40am Saturday 13th September 2008 in

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Cleaning up after nearly 2,500 students at the end of a busy university term is no mean feat.

But a novel scheme to divert unwanted student waste away from landfill and into local charities and community groups proved a huge success at Kingston University.

The end of term donation scheme was dreamed up by the sustainability team, which wanted to ensure clothing, books and household items which students staying in the five halls of residence sites no longer needed, went to good use.

Adverts went up in May and students were then able to deposit items in 1,100litre green donation bins as they started to move out.

After a summer spent sorting the items at a warehouse at the Seething Wells campus in Portsmouth Road, the team have saved more than four tonnes of unwanted goods going to the tip.

Renata Rez from the sustainability team said: “It’s not just an environmental task for us, we want to help the local community.

“It is important for us to keep in touch with local organisations and charities because the university is a large part of the Kingston community as well.”

Organisations to benefit include Refugee Action Kingston and Kingston library. More than 600 duvets which were used over the summer by conference delegates staying in the halls have been donated to World Jewish Relief.

Ms Rez said: “We not only wanted to save these items going to landfill but find a good home for them as well.”