Recycling is an easy way to reduce our waste to landfill and conserve valuable resources, but it is important to choose the right bin. Take-away coffee cups, food and plastic bags all contaminate our recycling, so please put them in the general rubbish bins (unless you already have a separate food for compost system). A new poster (pdf 527.5KB) has been developed to help remind people about how to do the right thing.
The University of Tasmania (UTAS) is continuing to encourage improved resource recovery on campus through its growing Resource Recovery Program (RRP), with the aim to:
The RRP has been taking shape over a number of years to the point where across UTAS there exist a number of opportunities for staff and students to recycle from a number of waste types.
From now on, UTAS will only have pre-ordered phonebooks delivered. If you still require a printed phone book, please fill in the Phone book request form by the end of August.
The University receives thousands of printed phone books each year – most of them are left uncollected in their plastic wrapping. This produces a large waste problem and is a waste of resources. Yes, unwanted phone books can be recycled, but transport and processing for recycling could be saved by not ordering hard copies in the first place.
To find phone numbers and contact details electronically you can simply go to either the Whitepages or Yellowpages
Don’t panic: if you do not order a phone book and at a later date realise you do actually need one, you can pick up a copy from your local post office.
For further information, contact Rowena Zwart, Sustainability Officer, on +61 3 6226 7257.
Staff and students can now recycle the following items:
Includes common dry cell batteries (e.g., NiMH; NiCd; Alkaline; and Lithium) in the common sizes(e.g., 9V, D, C, AA, AAA, and ‘button’ cell).
Recycling and waste hub location mapsSandy Bay campus recycling and waste hubs map (PDF 876.1KB)
E-waste refers to all old electrical appliances either in a state of disrepair or simply obsolete; it includes everything from kettles and microwaves to mobile phones and computers.
An e-waste collection is planned for the first week of July 2012, with a container at the Sandy Bay campus on Thursday 5 July (in car park outside Humanities) and a container at Newnham on Friday 6 July (located down Tamar Lane, behind Building A). If you have e-waste for recycling on these days, please contact Rowena Zwart, Sustainability Officer, with a list of items.
The UTAS Green ITS Working Group has worked on developing this annual e-waste amnesty service for UTAS staff and students. An initial e-waste collection was completed in the last week of September 2011, with two 15-cubic-metre skip bins of e-waste sent off for certified recycling.
During the Australian Medical Student’s Association (ASMA) Global Health Conference held at the University of Tasmania’s Sandy Bay Campus from 1-4 July 2010, a number of organisations collaborated on a food rescue trial where surplus cooked food was collected, repackaged and frozen. This food was distributed as Emergency Food Relief (EFR) to many of SecondBite’s regular recipient agencies, especially those who offer supported accommodation and outreach services. The Trial resulted in over 70% recovery of the event’s organic food waste stream and provided the following recovery outcome:
The Tasmanian Government has produced a terrific guideline on how to make your next event more sustainable (PDF 141.6KB).
A food waste collection trial was held in the first six months of 2011, collecting food waste from the 4 main food outlets at the Sandy Bay campus. The trial collected all food waste - including bones, leftovers, compostable cutlery and plates - and delivered it to a commercial hot composting facility (‘SoilFirst’).
During that 6 months, nearly 10,000 litres of food waste was separated from the landfill waste stream.
The recovery and recycling of food organics ensures diversion of methane producing materials from landfill (which will incur the carbon tax from 1 July 2012) and creates a fantastic gardening material.
For more information on recycling, contact Rowena Zwart +61 3 6226 7257 or Corey Peterson +61 3 6226 6203.