Improving Recycling on Campus

In February 2024, level 2 students on SCEBE’s undergraduate Environmental Management programme carried out a waste composition analysis (WCA) of wastes and recycling produced from a sample of campus buildings. The WCA is an annual exercise in the programme that gives students a unique insight and practical experience into the complexities of managing everyday items that become waste. The WCA also provides an opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of the University’s recycling systems.

Karin Helwig, senior lecturer in SCEBE who led the WCA exercise said: “The waste composition analysis serves several purposes. It gives students a real insight into the behaviour of people on campus, and helps them understand how recycling systems can be optimised to facilitate the behaviours we’d like to see.

By carrying out the analysis every year, we can also see long-term trends, and check whether any changes we’ve made are working and improving recycling behaviours.

Usually, the WCA also generates a lot of discussion about waste management amongst the students, which is perhaps the most valuable outcome of all.”

This year, students sampled waste from the Britannia, W. Harley, Annie Lennox and SAF Library. The waste composition highlighted a number of opportunities for improving recycling on campus. Some of the key findings and recommendations amongst the students were:

• Introduction of food waste bins in the SAF Library (project underway – bins have already been ordered).
• Guidance to remind staff that food waste should be placed in food waste bins in staff kitchens/pantries.
• Advice that metal cutlery should not be placed in general waste bags but instead washed for re-use.
• A review of bin emptying frequencies (because it was apparent that in some locations bin bags were unnecessarily being replaced with very few items in them).

Paulo Cruz, the University’s Head of Operational Sustainability, responded to these findings by confirming a review of existing systems for recycling and announcing that other measures were being developed to raise awareness of correct recycling arrangements at the University.

Amongst these was a vertical project with SCEBE students on the Applied Computer Games module, who developed a fun and educational recycling game called the Campus Cleanup. The game will help students and staff understand what can and cannot be recycled and it will be used in the University’s formal student and staff induction journey as well as during the Freshers week as a game challenge, to engage new students and introduce them to the University’s sustainability initiatives.

Hamid Homatash, senior lecturer in SCEBE who led the game development project said: "Campus Cleanup is a game designed and built by students on the BSc Game Development and BSc 3D Animation and Visualisation programmes to encourage fellow Glasgow Caledonian students and staff to recycle correctly.

The game collects anonymised statistics from players to gauge what their current level of understanding of recycling is which is helpful to know so that future policies could use this information to help make a positive impact on getting more people to understand and correctly recycle in the future.

The project was built over a period of 24 weeks as part of the student’s programmes and the students learned a lot through their interaction with Paulo Cruz, Head of Operational Sustainability. It also encouraged them to become more passionate about recycling and gain a deep understanding of the University's recycling practices.

Along with this, the students loved working on the project and being able to show their game making skills for a different kind of game that was for social good and positive change. They all really showed the common good spirit and I’m proud of them."

This collaboration was developed through the auspices of the University’s Circular Economy Plan and designed to improve the University’s environmental performance whilst equipping students with practical skills to make more sustainable lifestyle choices. You can test your knowledge and play the Campus Cleanup game!

Visit the University’s sustainability pages for more information about these initiatives and to register for the sustainability’s monthly newsletter.