Transcript
Recycling The University produces and disposes of significant quantities of waste each year, for example during the 2005/06 we disposed of 1284 tonnes of general waste. That’s roughly equivalent to 110 bin lorries of waste a year. The disposal of waste is very highly regulated and the Energy and Environment Team are in the process of setting up corporate procedures and initiatives to ensure all the waste the University produces is disposed in line with legalisation. The disposal of waste has a negative impact on the environment. The main environmental effects of incinerating or landfilling waste is pollution of the atmosphere from toxic and greenhouse gases, and pollution of the land and water courses from leachate. In addition some of the items that society disposes of are made from materials that are limited in supply, so should be reused and recycled rather than disposed of. To reduce the amount of waste that the University sends for disposal corporate recycling schemes are also being developed.
Products
Details
Guidance on disposal
Batteries
The law bans the disposal of all batteries (both wet and dry cell) in landfill or by incineration. This means that batteries must not be disposed of in the general waste; instead they must be separated from the general waste stream and sent for recycling. The University has set up a corporate battery recycling scheme. This guidance relates to dry cell batteries. Green composting bin located in the ScHARR Staff Common Room on the 2 nd Floor in Regent Court.
ScHARR method. You can take your batteries to the ScHARR collection point, which is ScHARR IT on the first floor (contact Shaun, Dave or Mark for more information). University method. Large collections of batteries can be booked as required by e-mailing
[email protected]. Smaller volumes of batteries can be sent to the Environment Officer via the internal mail. Staff have been alerted to use this by e-mail and the contents will be used as compost for feeding our worms in the soon to be installed wormery situated in ScHARR Courtyard. Paper, computer disks, CDs, audio and video tapes can all be disposed of through the corporate confidential waste scheme. Computer hard drives should not be disposed through the confidential waste system, instead they should be disposed of through the corporate WEEE disposal scheme. Departments are encouraged not to shred confidential waste themselves - economies of scale mean that it is cheaper to pay a contractor to shred the University’s confidential waste rather than department staff shredding material using a small shredder. http://www.shef.ac.uk/content/1/c6/09/95/34/EG%20%20005.pdf
Composting Bin
Confidential Confidential information can be stored on variety of media – on paper, electronically on hard drives, Waste
computer disks and CDs and on audio and video tapes. Irrespective of how the information is held confidential waste must be disposed of securely.
Revised 21/2/12
Glass Recycling
Storage box for recycling glass located in the ScHARR Staff Common Room on the 2 nd Flooor in Regent Court.
Printer Cartridge Recycling
Laserjet and inkjet cartridges are collected, sorted and stored centrally by Central Stores for recycling • HP laserjets are returned to HP for recycling, • All other laserjets and inkjets are donated to a nominated charity.
Stamps
Many charities, such as the RSPB and Guide Dogs for the Blind, raise money by collecting used postage stamps for resale to stamp dealers. Used overseas postage stamps are worth around four times more to charities than UK or mixed UK and overseas stamps. www.charityfreebies.co.uk/used-postage-stamps.htm.
Paper
Although the aim should be to reduce and re-use paper (by not routinely printing out unnecessary information such as emails etc), using double sided and 2-page/sheet printing/copying, paper and cardboard can be re-cycled.
Plastic
As above, the aim is to reduce use of, and encourage reuse of plastic materials where possible. Processed foods and bottled drinks all contribute to increased use of plastics and alternatives are possible.
WEEE
Waste electrical and electronic equipment is now controlled via EU regulation and a specific directive. Key responsibilities are that manufacturers pay for the recycling and disposal or their products when they are eventually thrown away and that businesses and organisations have separate disposal policies for WEEE and do not discard them with usual waste.
Revised 21/2/12
Any unbroken glass can be deposited here and is subsequently taken by members of the Public Health Green Impact Team to a local council operated recycling system near West One. To recycle printer cartridges you should put the empty cartridge into the package of the replacement cartridge, secure the box and send it to Central Stores. The ScHARR IT staff can also assist in this process, but for general information, this can be done via the internal mail or departmental collection points – collections can be booked as required by e-mailing
[email protected]. There is a collection point and envelope on the main staff notice board in the open plan public health area on the 2 nd floor.
The open plan public health area has 3 blue bins which should only be used for the recycling of paper and cardboard. These are emptied regularly. Other bins may be found across ScHARR including the staff tea room on the 2 nd floor and the photocopying room on the 2nd floor. There is a special bin provided for the recycling of plastic waste of the types: 1 Polyethylene terephthalate – Fizzy drink bottles and oven ready meal trays. 2 High-density Polyethylene – Bottles for milk and washing-up liquids. 4 Low density Polyethylene – Carrier bags and bin liners. A bin is located in the staff tea room on the 2nd floor ScHARR public health collect WEEE and arrange periodic collections. Staff should contact Catherine Grinold for further information.
