Currently, around 70 per cent of waste is not recycled. This must be reduced to 25 per cent by 2024, explained Desirée Denie, Project Manager at Real Estate and Facilities. “The ultimate aim is even to make the entire campus a zero waste campus.”
Five waste streams can separated in the buildings in the same way as using the previous temporary cardboard containers: coffee cups, paper, fruit and vegetable waste, residual and plastic, metal and drink cartons (PMC). Outside, there are three waste streams. Fruit and vegetable waste and paper will not be collected there. “Vermin is attracted by fruit and vegetable waste and we’d of course prefer not to have that. And paper collected outside quickly becomes wet and dirty, making it more difficult to recycle.”
‘Better waste streams’
While in Rotterdam increasingly less waste is collected in separate streams, the university has actually decided to separate more waste. “I understand that the municipality has decided to separate waste after collection, for logistics reasons or to prevent vermin. But separating waste properly at source, as it’s known, results in higher quality waste streams,” explained Denie. These streams are easier to recycle and process into new products.
Denie is confident that we will achieve the objective of reducing residual waste to a quarter of the total by 2024. “The people around our campus are smart. They can work out for themselves how to separate their waste. Moreover, they have an above-average interest in topics such as sustainability.” This week, the university also started a communications campaign to inform students and staff of the new waste bins and the additional options for separating waste: Bin it right!
The bins were installed by people with a labour market disadvantage. They will also take care of maintenance. “A focus on corporate social responsibility was an express requirement in the university tender.” Lune waste bins are used in the buildings, and the outside bins are from MCB Milieu & Techniek.
