New recycling walls in Southern campuses Where are they located, how much has been collected and where do they go? used 4-drawer filing cabinets sourced from the UTAS Re-use Program into ‘Recycling Hubs’. This new service got its start through the excellent research and planning work of 2019 SIPS student interns and their staff mentor Jasper McCormack. We hope our recycling walls will become a
In December 2019 the University of Tasmania, with support from Hobart City Council, set up a pilot recycling wall for difficult to recycle items in the Social Sciences building on the Sandy Bay campus. Both students and staff have enjoyed taking advantage of this new recycling initiative. This one wall has collected over 1000 bread tags, 15kg of e-waste, 20kg of batteries, in excess of 40 printer and toner cartridges, 52 x-rays and much more. All collections are either recycled locally or sent for free to the mainland for processing. Given the immediate success of the pilot wall, the service is expanding to more southern campuses and buildings, with work underway determining how we can support these walls at all our campuses. The Corporate Services Building now has its own recycling wall in the lobby and the School of Creative Arts and Media was the first school or college to embrace the new service. Our amazing sustainability project officer Will Plaister uses his DIY skills to refurbish pairs of
recycled soft plastics and the variability of soft plastic materials. Soft plastics recycling facilities are reliant on post-industrial, in contrast to post-consumer, plastics to increase material consistency. We encourage you to contact your suppliers before purchasing new equipment or supplies to request minimal packaging and to ask suppliers to identify where materials can be recycled. An increase in demand for products made from recycled plastic content is also needed, so ask your suppliers what options you have for this. You can also support demand for recycled plastic products by asking suppliers what options they have for products made with recycled plastic content. If your school, college or building would like to be considered for a recycling hub or for more information about the pilot program please contact: waste.utas@utas.edu.au For more information about the re-use program please visit: https://www.warp-it.co.uk/company/utas or email reuse.program@utas.edu.au
familiar sight to staff and students who work and study across different campuses. It’s important to stress that the new DIY recycling hubs; while not perfect in appearance, themselves demonstrate the re-use ethos and are well-suited and practical for collection of recyclables. The current streams collected include: pens, markers & highlighter, bread tags, mobile phones, batteries, contact lenses, blister pack and cases, small e-waste, toothbrushes & toothpaste tubes, printer and toner cartridges. We receive many inquiries about soft plastics recycling. So far, we have been unable to locate a facility in Tasmania or Victoria that will accept our mixed soft plastics for recycling. There are several contributing factors for this, including a lack of demand for products made from
Recycling wall at the School of Creative Arts and Media made with repurposed filing cabinets from the Re-use Program
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Sustainability Bulletin • Issue 13 April 2020
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