A TIDE OF WASTE
Universities are producing ever more amounts of rubbish
THE amount of waste produced by universities in the UK has more than doubled in a single year.
Figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) show that 1.1 million tonnes of waste was generated by higher education institutions in the UK in 2016/17.
That is more than double the 518,278 tonnes the previous year.
It means that, on average, universities produced around 500 kilograms of waste per student in 2016/17.
In 2015/16 the rate was just
200 kilograms.
HESA measures waste by looking at a range of factors.
These include carbon emissions from energy consumption and fuel used in universityowned vehicles, the volume of wastewater for the whole estate, and all carbon emissions associated with the production and treatment of waste.
The Plymouth College of Art generates more waste per head than any other university for which data is available. Some 9,120 tonnes of waste was produced in 2016/17 - a rate of 6.9 tonnes for each of the university’s 1,315 students. Other institutions with remarkably high levels of waste per student include Imperial College (3.4), The Institute of Cancer Research (2.5), and The University of Manchester (2.0 tonnes).
Within Wales, Cardiff had the worst rate (ranking 18th in the UK) with 471 kilograms of waste in per student.
Meanwhile, the University of Abertay Dundee in Scotland was the most waste-efficient university across the UK, producing just 15 kilograms for each student. A spokesperson from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “More needs to be done and everybody, including universities, has a role to play in reducing avoidable waste and recycling more to leave our environment in a better state than we found it."