Student exodus benefits charity

Bath students have raised over half a million pounds for charity by selling their unwanted items.

Generous donations from Bath students and local residents have raised £554,120 for the British Heart Foundation (BHF), since the initiative’s launch in 2012.

This money has been generated through the ‘Pack for Good’ campaign which encourages students to donate quality unwanted items to the charity as they clear out accommodation at the end of term.

The BHF initiative, led by the Student Community Partnership (SCP) is a joint venture between the University of Bath, Bath Spa University and Bath & North East Somerset Council (BANES). It was launched in 2012 to raise funds for the charity and help cut waste.

Support for BHF’S Pack for Good scheme has grown with a record number of almost 14,000 bags collected in 2018, and bags to the value of up to £136,206 collected in 2019. Each bag is typically worth around £14 and items donated range from books and DVDS to clothes, which the charity turns into money for research into heart and circulatory diseases.

In the last 12 months, the campaign has directly funded projects and resources in Bath and North East Somerset, including 17 healthat-work schemes, six healthcare professionals, 15 CPR award schemes and eight defibrillators.

In addition to helping support the local work of BHF, the campaign has also diverted 77.83 tonnes of items from the waste stream. This means 718.272 kgs of CO2 emissions (greenhouse gases) were saved from entering the environment, reducing Bath’s carbon footprint.

Megan Robertson, chair of the SCP and vice president community at Bath Spa Students’ Union, said: “I’m proud of what the city of Bath has donated to the BHF.”

Amanda Purkiss, university account manager at the BHF who manages the partnership, said: “We want to say a huge thank you to the students and local residents of Bath for their support. We really value these donations enormously, as they deliver much-needed stock for our shops.”