Sustainable resource management in higher education institutions: shift your stuff

Abstract

‘Fast fashion’ and a ‘take, make, dispose’ economy are fueling people’s accumulation of goods, and their willingness to throw these goods away. The end of each University year sees tens of thousands of students clear out their homes, and lives, and move on to pastures new, leaving behind a wake of unwanted clothing, kitchenware and bedding, amongst other ‘throwaway’ items. Sustainable waste management schemes at higher education institutions (HEIs) are becoming more prominent, and are taking the opportunity to generate positive outcomes from this problem that riddles most university cities across the country. This study comprises of an extensive review of HEI reuse schemes as well as the collection of primary data during the planning and running of “Shift Your Stuff”, an end-of-term reuse scheme run by Southampton University Students Union (SUSU). The study looks at taking an existing protocol, designed to provide a consistent method of running and analysing an end of term re-use scheme, and refining it to create a methodology which could be easily transferred to other universities. We critically analyses the methods, protocol and key performance indicators (KPIs) which have been used in previous years, and reports on the success of this year’s project, in comparison to previous years. The KPIs continued to be an effective way of displaying the success of the scheme, with a 92.4% reuse rate- an improvement on last year, along with a host of social benefits including the donation of food and clothing to the homeless or deprived and the contribution to ground-breaking heart disease research undertaken by the British Heart Foundation (BHF). These benefits were brought about by the donations themselves, and by the £3,474 raised through the sale of donations. Although the total amount of donations was down in comparison to previous years, the quality was better, with a lower percentage of donations having to be sent for disposal. We make a series of suggestions on how to improve the scheme in order make it more effective in the future. For the University of Southampton to reach its potential in terms of donations it is recommended that the running of the scheme is handed over to the BHF, who run over 80 similar schemes across the country. Alternatively, SUSU could continue running the scheme, but to improve performance would require more investment, of time and funds, and possibly a collaboration with other organisations in order to reach a wider audience and improve participation.

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ORCID for Ian Williams: orcid.org/0000-0002-0121-1219

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