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Students' PET project improves plastic recycling performance

5th June 2007

Liverpool students are paving the way for improved plastics recycling thanks to a pioneering new scheme that has seen more than 100,000 plastic bottles diverted from landfill since the start of the academic year in September 2006 and reduced disposal costs by 20 per cent.

The scheme - a partnership between national waste and recycling operator Biffa, NUS Services, the commercial arm of the National Union of Students, and Coca-Cola Enterprises - was devised as a means to deal with the increasing amount of waste plastic generated by students' unions throughout the UK.

'Plastic recycling is a big issue for students' unions,' said Jamie Agombar, NUS Services ethical and environmental co-ordinator. 'More and more student bars are selling alcohol in plastic bottles, and PET format now accounts for 30 percent of our packaged market.'

The increasing cost of landfill means that organisations need to start looking at alternate ways of getting rid of rubbish. Recycling is the obvious solution, but plastic recycling services are limited.

Biffa recycling manager Trevor Williams said, 'Plastic is a valuable resource. It's senseless to dispose of it through landfill, especially when it can be recovered. The purpose of the trial was to find out whether a plastics recycling scheme could work within a University campus and the results of this trial suggest that in many cases, it can.'

'Large volumes of material is obviously key to the success of any recovery scheme,' added Jamie. 'And the amount of plastic generated through students' union bars suggest that extending the scheme to other large students' unions would work. Also essential are good student officers that can help educate students about using recycling containers, good management and cleaning staff and good collection drivers who can help to identify any problems.'

The success of the trial means that NUS Services and Biffa are examining opportunities to expand the service to more campuses across the country.