{"id":114306,"date":"2020-06-04T14:25:37","date_gmt":"2020-06-04T12:25:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=114306"},"modified":"2026-01-20T09:59:42","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T08:59:42","slug":"from-cup-to-pulp-what-happens-to-your-coffee-cup-after-you-throw-it-away-on-campus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2020\/06\/04\/from-cup-to-pulp-what-happens-to-your-coffee-cup-after-you-throw-it-away-on-campus\/","title":{"rendered":"From cup to pulp: what happens to your coffee cup after you throw it away on campus"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before the coronavirus brought the campus to a standstill, the university produced hundreds of thousands of kilos of rubbish each year. Over the past three years, you have been able to put your banana peel in the cardboard bins titled ‘organic’ and a plastic fast food container in with the \u2018rest\u2019 (Dutch for residual waste or non-recyclable rubbish). Still, there is a rumour circulating among students that all the waste, whether separated or not, eventually ends up in the same incinerator. But is that really true? Where does our rubbish actually go? We checked it out for you.<\/p>\n

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We took red coffee cups as an example and followed their journey through various \u2018waste disposal stations\u2019 on campus. If every student drinks one cup of coffee or tea per day, that\u2019s roughly thirty thousand cardboard cups, some of which are neatly separated into the brown bins. Anyone who ever comes to the university library in the evenings can see the cup tray overflowing with stacks of these cups. That is why cleaners from the Asito cleaning company empty these bins every day. At seven o\u2019clock in the morning, they start their round and bring the full bags to one of the two \u2018recycling rotundas\u2019, also called \u2018afvalrotondes\u2019 in Dutch, as in waste collection or recycling centres\/junctions. These are located behind steel gates at the entrance to the Burgemeester Oudlaan behind the Spar supermarket.<\/p>\n\t

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Just 30 percent gets separated.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The university produced more than 800,000 kilos of rubbish in 2018, and that mountain continues to grow each year. Most buildings have cardboard bins where litter is sorted out: cups, organic, PMD (plastic, metal and drink cartons), paper and non-recyclable waste. But the waste from the approximately 150 grey bins on the outdoor grounds, or from the many offices and student residences in the Hatta building all fall into one category: residual (non-recyclable) waste. That is why 70 percent of all the waste produced on campus is still not being pre-sorted before it is collected.<\/p>\n\n\t<\/div>\n