Students encouraged to love their home from home

For many students, living off campus in their second and third year can be their first time taking responsibility for things like rent, utility bills and managing their household waste. Overflowing rubbish bins left out on streets have been highlighted as a recurring issue by local residents living in highly populated student areas. Often half the problem is that students simply don’t know the implications of overfilling their bins.

The new initiative aims to raise awareness among student households about their duties as a neighbour — encouraging them to put their bins out on time and increase the amount of waste that is being recycled. Rubbish can build up quickly when household waste bins are over-filled or recycling bins are contaminated with non-recyclables, meaning that the council are unable to collect them.

Melanie Futer, the University of Nottingham’s Off Campus Affairs Manager said: “The University is committed to being a good neighbour, and the Love Where You Live campaign forms part of this commitment. Our hope is that this pilot project will see a reduction in bins left on streets and contaminated bins, and an increase of awareness around the Council’s waste management services.”

The month long campaign will see a team of student ambassadors going from door-to-door in problem areas to talk to students and local residents about current issues and provide information about the services offered by the council.

One of the main objectives is to encourage students to sign up to the ‘bin-formation’ text alert scheme, introduced by Nottingham City Council at the start of this academic year. Students who live off campus can sign up to the service to receive free reminders about when to put their bins out and when to take them back in again.

Cllr Nicola Heaton, Portfolio Holder for Community Services at Nottingham City Council, said: “Student areas are prone to aspects like overflowing bins and bins on streets so we are working alongside both of our universities to try and tackle this problem. We hope the information and reminders we provide during the week will encourage students to use the support that is offered through the City Council such as the bin-formation text service and also our free bulky waste collection to keep their neighbourhoods clean.”

The build-up of waste can be worsened by the end of term time clear out when the majority of students opt to head home for a number of weeks at a time. Students are

also being encouraged to use this time as an opportunity to give something back to the local community, donating any unwanted non-perishable food to local food banks rather than simply throwing them away.

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Notes to editors: The University of Nottingham has 43,000 students and is ‘the nearest Britain has to a truly global university, with campuses in China and Malaysia modelled on a headquarters that is among the most attractive in Britain’ (Times Good University Guide 2014). It is also the most popular university among graduate employers, the world’s greenest university, and winner of the Times Higher Education Award for ‘Outstanding Contribution to Sustainable Development’. It is ranked in the World's Top 75 universities by the QS World University Rankings.

Impact: The Nottingham Campaign, its biggest-ever fundraising campaign, is delivering the University’s vision to change lives, tackle global issues and shape the future. More news