Piloting a New Recycling Campaign: #InTheLoop

Sustainable UCL have been working with environmental charity Hubbub, who design campaigns that inspire ways of living that are good for the environment. Reducing waste and making sure materials are recycled is an essential part of creating a more sustainable UCL. We're launching a recycling campaign to improve awareness of what can be recycled, the benefits of recycling and the role we all have to play to keep our waste in #theloop to be used again and again. We’re piloting new bin signage and posters across campus in select areas to see if this improves our recycling rates. Spot the new bin signage on campus at Bidborough House, the Student Centre, Wilkins Building and Refecotry, 22 Gordon Street, 25 Gordon Street Cafe, Print Room Cafe and John Godson House. 

Posters and resources for you to download and put up in your classrooms, labs or kitchens will be available once the pilot has proved successful, so you can stay in the loop!

We already know UCL is full of keen recyclers: 89% of UCL students and staff asked said they recycle all the time or most of the time. So we’re ambitious with our target to increase UCL’s recycling rate to at least 85%. In 2019, UCL had a recycling rate of 62%. While this is high, this still meant 808,510kg of waste that could not be recycled was collected from campus. All of this non-recycled waste was recovered for energy, and none of it went to landfill. However, meeting our goal would recycle an extra 490,000kg: that’s more than 40 double decker buses. 

As well as improving recycling with #TheLoop campaign, we’ll be sharing some tips to reduce overall waste. Remember you can use WarpIt to rehome unused items to other teams or departments, or get hold of some kit yourself!  

So help us make change possible, by getting in #theLoop about waste here.