All this week our lovely staff Sustainability Champions have been learning all about waste and recycling at King’s and how they can help us achieve our targets.
So what are our sustainability targets?
- 43% reduction in our carbon footprint from our 2005-06 baseline
- Reduce absolute water consumption by 2% each year
- Achieve 70% recycling of non hazardous waste by 2020
Last year King’s produces 3663 tonnes of waste. That’s 20x as heavy as a house!
Our goal by 2020 is to ensure that 70% of this waste is recycled. In order to make this happen we have implemented a number of changes. Previously King’s worked with over 40 different contractors in order to dispose of our waste. This year we have worked hard to reduce that down to around 10, the main one of which is Simply Waste. The benefit of working with Simply Waste as one of our primary contractors is not only that they operate a zero waste to landfill policy, but also that every time one of our bins are collected it is weighed so we know exactly how much general waste and recycling we are producing. That data is passed on to us monthly so, crucially, if we implement any new policies or initiative we can see the benefit (or lack of) in real time. In this way it is much easier for us to tell what changes we need to make in order to improve our recycling rates.
So where are we now? Currently we are recycling 39% of our waste, so we still have a way to go before we hit our 60% target!
So how can you help us to improve our recycling rates?
- We have this handy A-Z of waste guide which will tell you everything you need to know about disposing of all different kinds of items at King’s
- Check out the bin in your areas. Are they correctly labelled with clear signage and is it possible to relabel them so 2/3 of the bins are recycling?
- Make sure you and your colleagues are aware of Warp-it, our online sharing platform for office and lab items
If you have any questions about waste and recycling in your area then don’t hesitate to contact us at sustainability@kcl.ac.uk
