More than 30 student volunteers took part in March’s annual Waste Wars event, analysing the contents of 100 bin bags collected from across our campuses and halls.

The purpose of the event is to record how much contaminated waste is in each bag. This year, volunteers recorded a significant reduction in the volume of food and liquid waste being incorrectly disposed of in mixed recycling bins. The contamination rate has dropped to less than 1.8 per cent (in 2018 it was 17.1 per cent), which is a fantastic achievement for everyone at our University.

There’s still more work to do to entirely eliminate food and liquid waste from entering our mixed recycling. Please do what you can to separate liquid from used disposable cups (or even better, invest in a reusable cup!) and place all remaining food contents in the food waste bin before recycling its packaging.

Monthly waste breakdowns are now being produced for all of our campuses and halls, which highlight how well we are doing against our goals. Building managers are being encouraged to trial new ideas for improving our performance. For example, recycling information at Winchester School of Art has been reproduced in Mandarin, to help guide our students from China.

Alongside the waste breakdowns, faculties are receiving monthly electricity, gas, and water usage reports for all buildings, to help identify areas which we can improve upon.

At a local level, the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences is targeting a 10 per cent reduction in electricity usage and has convened a new working group to look at how this can be achieved.

To find out more or ask a question, visit the sustainability website, or email: sustainability@southampton.ac.uk?and follow @Sustainable_UoS on Twitter.