RECYCLING AND WASTE MANAGEMENT FULL MARKS
Sitemark has worked with the University of Birmingham for more than a decade to benchmark and streamline its recycling and waste management. Here, Tomorrow’s FM talks to Paul Taylor, Sitemark’s Recycling and Waste Manager, to recap the partnership so far and discuss ongoing work.
The University of Birmingham (UoB) is ranked amongst the world’s top 100 institutions. Its work brings people from across the world to Birmingham, including researchers, teachers and more than 6,500 international students from over 150 countries. The University was England’s first civic redbrick university, a founding member of the Russell Group, and has a lengthy history of playing a strong role in its community, leading the pursuit of knowledge but also investing in impactful initiatives that benefit the region.
“Sitemark reviewed the UoB’s historical tender documents to draw up a new document that
allowed potential suppliers to be innovative in their solutions.”
The institution makes a significant contribution to sustainable development, not only in its role as a globally recognised provider of research and teaching, but also in the way it performs as a business engaging positively with the local and wider community. It is one of the largest universities in the UK by student population, with around 35,000 students enrolled annually. The main Edgbaston
campus covers three square miles and there are other campuses around the city.
It’s therefore understandable that effective and efficient recycling and waste management processes can be challenging to identify and implement.
Recycling and waste management policies can involve a number of departments, such as facilities, estates, environmental services and sustainability. The teams at UoB have collaborated on policies in the past with some success. These include a bin-less office policy in 2009 and a zero-to-waste landfill policy in 2010. In addition, the University has proactively implemented many sustainable initiatives in the last decade, including ‘Junk Busters’, an award-winning joint recycling scheme between the University and Guild of Students.
Despite these policies, the UoB was aware of the need for continual assessment and the benefits that an external organisation could bring. Sitemark had previously benchmarked cleaning at the University with great results, so we were delighted to get the call to benchmark recycling and waste management.
Benchmarking waste Sitemark began in 2015 by benchmarking commercial and household waste. The extensive review involved site visits to review bin configurations, collection processes and scheduling of all streams, including inspection of bins to understand materials being removed from site.
30 | TOMORROW’S FM
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