Welcome to the first in the series of ‘what happens to our…’ I thought that it would be a good idea to go through what happens to all the different types of waste that we produce here at the University of Kent, since it’s been a number of years since we have last explained.
General waste is the most misunderstood waste stream here at the University, our general waste DOES NOT go to landfill, which I understand that there are still staff and students who think that it does and that’s why I picked it as our first subject in this series. General waste production in the 2018/2019 academic year totalled 620.776 tonnes which is the weight of 3 blue whales and was 46% of the total waste created in that year.
So general waste is produced all around campus, there are general waste sections in all of our public litter bins around campus, general waste bins within all of our buildings, teaching, offices and residential areas. General waste consists of food, polystyrene, plastic film and anything that has been contaminated, realistically not a great deal of items go into this part of the bin. General waste goes into the black sacks within the bins which are then removed (cleaning team within teaching and office areas, and students in residential areas) and placed into the general waste euro bins within the bin compounds. I have linked our maps section on our website which shows the public litter bins and external bin compounds for Canterbury and Medway. All bins have signage on which shows that it is a general waste bin but even so after investigating a couple of years ago 85% of the contents of the general waste sacks can be recycled! And so we need to be recycling correctly.
But let’s carry on talking about what happens to the general waste. Once the bags are all in the external euro bins, our waste contractor Viridor come and collect them. Each external euro bin has a barcode style chip attached which allows the waste vehicle to connect the waste weight of the bin to the location, which is then used to provide the waste weight for every external euro bin on campus. This is essential for Estates to be able to determine areas where the general waste production has increased or decreased and so can provide us with target areas that we can work on.
Once the bins have been emptied, the vehicle goes to a transfer site, here the general waste is removed from the vehicle and added into a larger transportation truck to then transport the waste to the Energy from Waste (EfW) Facility. So once the waste is placed into the larger transportation truck it is mixed in with waste from other organisations.
Next step is once the general waste arrives at the EfW the waste is loaded into different bunkers which then use a large arcade style grabber to mix the waste. The waste is mixed so that the calorific value can be spread through the bunker which improves the burn. The calorific value comes from the waste food and that is why we do not currently have a specific food waste bin campus wide. The grabber then moves waste from the bunker into the burner vessel where it is mixed with other items such as lime to increase the burn. The energy from the burn is captured, and is used to power the site itself with the remainder being sent to the national grid and provides enough energy to power approx. 86,000 homes! The ash that is left over after the burn can contain metal, this is removed and taken to a metal facility with the left over ash being made into breeze blocks or added in aggregate for roads. Here is the link to the Lakeside EfW facility that our general waste is disposed at. I also think that this video is also a really good way of explaining the process that the general waste goes through.
So even though we need to be reducing our general waste as part of a target within the University of Kent Waste Strategy 2018-2021 rest be assured that the general waste that is being produced is being disposed of in a sustainable way.
Join us next month to find out what happens to our…mixed recycling.
If you have any questions or want to find out more please reach out through our Instagram, twitter or email and there is also lots of information including the A-Z of waste on our webpages.