UCL and MITIE win waste industry award

This award is one of the most prestigious awards in the waste industry and focuses on excellence in any aspect of innovative practice related to wastes management or resource recovery. To win it is a great achievement for UCL and fantastic recognition the hard work over the last two years that has made this possible.

The judges on the panel agreed that our submission highlighted the importance of thinking outside the box in regard to the management of wastes and resources.Two years ago a project was undertaken by Facilities Services and our hazardous Waste partner MITIE to reduce the amount of clinical waste from laboratories that was sent to high temperature incineration in an effort to raise UCL higher within the waste hierarchy. This was achieved by working with Faculty Managers to complete audits of laboratories to help them and us understand the different waste streams they produced.

As much waste as possible was diverted from high temperature incineration by firstly, when possible, pro-actively re-classifying clinical waste as offensive waste (which is non-hazardous) and then sending this to an incinerator with energy recovery. Secondly by implementing a laboratory waste recycling scheme where appropriate, to divert non hazardous waste away from high temperature incineration and into recycling. The reclassification of clinical waste into offensive waste resulted in cost savings in excess of £1,000/month and on average 0.6 KWh-1 of electricity generated per month.

Transport of waste was also monitored and collections routes were redesigned, reducing the number of transport journeys by half, eliminating 28 tonnes of CO2 being emitted to the atmosphere and resulting in cost savings in excess of £3,500 per month.

On 10 November representatives from UCL and MITIE attended the awards ceremony in London where we were up against four other nominees in our category, Devon County Council, Every Can Counts, VT Filtration Ltd and The Waste Wizard all with strong submissions. UCL and MITIE were delighted to win the Innovative Practice in Waste Management and Resource Recovery category. 

Paul Monk, Disposal of Hazardous Waste Technician, UCL Estates