Waste & Recycling
Recycling is one of the easiest ways in which you can help protect the environment.
Why recycle?
Recycling stops waste going to landfill, and this helps conserve valuable resources by making waste into new items. Landfill sites also produce greenhouse gasses that cause climate change.
Did you know?
Up to 60% of the rubbish that ends up in the dustbin could be recycled.
Incinerating 10,000 tons of waste creates 1 job. Sending it to landfill creates 6 jobs - but recycling it creates 36 jobs!
Recycling at Pollock Halls
Shanks are responsible for most of the recycling at Pollock Halls.
Recently, 130 of their bins were given a home across the site - including in students' pantries. Past and present students have expressed a wish to become involved in recycling projects, so you now have the opportunity of doing so.
It's important to remember that Shanks bins can take all waste except food, electrical equipment and glass.
With this in mind, we have retained the two Edinburgh City Council recycling areas on the Pollock site - mainly for the recycling of glass.
Recycling in Flats
Our flatted sites have Edinburgh City Council recycling bins: mostly for packaging (bins with green lid) and paper (bins with blue lid).
A limited number of sites have glass recycling bins, but most glass has to be recycled at designated local recycling points such as Potterrow, some supermarkets, etc.
Maps of recycling points around the city which are close to your accommodation can be found on the Waste Aware website:
Re-use
At Accommodation Services, we try whenever possible to re-use items.
However, if we can’t re-use things, we give them to charitable organisations or waste companies who break down the items into specific materials to be recycled.
This article was published on Aug 18, 2011