GREEN UCL

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Green Impact Award 2013 Gold CEGE

  Green Impact Award April 24th 2013

The NUS Green Impact programme has been in progress at UCL for the second year running. The programme encourages teams to undertake a number of actions to reduce their environmental impacts - thereby contributing to UCL's overall environmental sustainability programme. In 2011/12, 19 UCL teams signed up and completed actions as part of Green Impact. In 2012/13, 29 teams have got involved in the programme and undertaken actions ranging from the purchase of sustainable food to the use of UCL's waste reuse scheme, WarpIt. As a result of the programme, UCL was able to achieve the following  More...

Published: May 2, 2013 11:55:53 AM

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Green Champions Forum and Training Sessions

The next Green Champions Forum will take place on Wednesday April 10th 1-2pm in G01 Central House. Lunch will be provided. If you would like to attend please email greenucl@ucl.ac.uk with the number of people and any dietary requirements. More...

Published: Mar 11, 2013 10:39:22 AM

Greener World Visit

Visit to Greener World

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On 14 January 2011, the three UCL Lead Green Champions set off from UCL  on a voyage of recycling discovery to UCL’s recycling plant, Greener World in Slough Business Park. They wanted to see, with their own eyes, that UCL is recycling material, and how and where this is carried out.

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All the recycling material is weighed and booked in daily on arrival. UCL delivers between five and seven tons of recycling material every weekday which is collected from 77 bins on the main Bloomsbury campus – and each bin can take 1100 litres of material. Actual waste is collected in a separate truck and there is an evening collection for  waste from the Refectory food preparation areas which is converted into energy at an anaerobic digestion plant.

UCL currently recycles 60% of its disposables so nearly as much is generated as waste. It is excellent news that, in a few months time, all UCL’s waste material from the Bloomsbury Campus will be diverted to new energy from the waste plant, so UCL will no longer place anything into landfill.

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The Greener World recycling building looked like a small aircraft hangar which was open to the elements at one end. On the right-hand side was a raised platform with a conveyor belt of material for recycling. Fourteen staff, wearing yellow fluorescent jackets, masks and gloves, stood along this conveyor belt, each plucking out a particular material (white paper, coloured paper, plastic, tin) and dropping it down one of eight large shoots. At the end of each shoot was a compactor which produced a bail of each type of material and a small orange fork lift transported it over to the appropriate mountain of bails. These bails are then collected and transported around the country so that they can be transformed into items for resale.

Because the Slough plant is not automated and sorts recycling material by hand, UCL is allowed up to 5% of contamination in the recycling bags. The bags are visibly inspected before leaving UCL

As a result of the day-trip to Greener World, Lead Green Champions can vouch that UCL is recycling. However, we would make a heartfelt plea to the whole UCL community:

  • PLEASE CONSUME LESS TO REDUCE UCL’S WASTE AND RECYCLING OUTPUT.

  • PLEASE RECYCLE AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE.

  • PLEASE REDUCE CONTAMINATION OF RECYCLING MATERIAL BY RINSING OUT CANS/BOTTLES AND ENSURING THAT ITEMS ARE DRY AND PLACING THINGS IN THE APPROPRIATE BINS.

  • PLEASE REMEMBER THAT THE ONLY ITEMS WHICH CANNOT BE RECYLED AT UCL ARE:

  • FOOD WASTE;
  • FRUIT;
  • TEA BAGS/COFFEE GRANULES
  • HYGIENE WASTE SUCH AS USED TISSUES;
  • POLYSTYRENE;
  • HAZARDOUS WASTE.

LET’S ALL MAKE UCL A GREENER WORLD!