{"id":4588,"date":"2020-03-17T18:01:18","date_gmt":"2020-03-17T18:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/?p=4588"},"modified":"2020-03-18T16:44:11","modified_gmt":"2020-03-18T16:44:11","slug":"students-visit-plastics-recycling-plant-to-further-embed-sustainability-across-the-curriculum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/2020\/03\/17\/students-visit-plastics-recycling-plant-to-further-embed-sustainability-across-the-curriculum\/","title":{"rendered":"Students visit plastics&#8217; recycling plant to further embed sustainability across the curriculum"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A group of students registered on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kent.ac.uk\/courses\/modules\/module\/SE558\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Anthropocene: Planetary Crises and the Age of Humans<\/a> module recently visited the Viridor plastics&#8217; recycling plant in Rochester. Liaising with University of Kent managers, the team of students is working to research and develop suitable materials to sensitise University freshers to issues around sustainability as part of the project for the module assessment.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4592\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4592\" style=\"width: 750px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-4592 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/files\/2020\/03\/Control-room-cropped.jpg\" alt=\"In the control room at the Viridor Rochester plastics recycling plant. All of the plastic waste produced at the University of Kent is sorted and processed at this facility.\" width=\"750\" height=\"322\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/files\/2020\/03\/Control-room-cropped.jpg 750w, https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/files\/2020\/03\/Control-room-cropped-300x129.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4592\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">In the control room at the Viridor Rochester plastics recycling plant. All of the plastic waste produced at the University of Kent is sorted and processed at this facility.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In this module, students are encouraged to think across multiple scales, connecting local-level research and interventions to the larger problems and crises of the twenty-first century, and to apply critical thinking and research skills to the process of social and institutional transformation. Through modules like this, the School of Anthropology and Conservation, the first School at Kent to <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/2019\/09\/27\/school-of-anthropology-and-conservation-declares-climate-and-environmental-emergency\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">declare a climate and environmental emergency<\/a>, is leading efforts in the University to embed sustainability across its teaching, research and operations, working in close collaboration with the University\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sustainkent\/futureproof\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">FutureProof <\/a>and<a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/staff-student-news\/2019\/11\/05\/sustainability-in-the-curriculum-launch-of-nus-responsible-futures-programe\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u00a0Responsible Futures<\/a> programmes, the latter in conjunction with the National Union of Students.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4594\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4594\" style=\"width: 750px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-4594 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/files\/2020\/03\/Manual-sorting-cropped.jpg\" alt=\"Manual sorting in the Viridor Rochester plastics recycling plant. Students in the \u00c5nthropocene module are working on projects aimed to help embed sustainability across the teaching, research and operations at the University of Kent.\" width=\"750\" height=\"294\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/files\/2020\/03\/Manual-sorting-cropped.jpg 750w, https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/files\/2020\/03\/Manual-sorting-cropped-300x118.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4594\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Manual sorting in the Viridor Rochester plastics recycling plant. Students in the \u00c5nthropocene module are working on projects aimed to help embed sustainability across the teaching, research and operations at the University of Kent.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4595\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4595\" style=\"width: 750px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-4595 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/files\/2020\/03\/plastic-bundles-cropped.jpg\" alt=\"One tonne bundles of sorted plastic ready for shipment to another Viridor plant for the next stage in the recycling process. Several students in the module are working directly on questions related to reducing waste and improving recycling, both through awareness and behavioural change. \" width=\"750\" height=\"244\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/files\/2020\/03\/plastic-bundles-cropped.jpg 750w, https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/files\/2020\/03\/plastic-bundles-cropped-300x98.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4595\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">One tonne bundles of sorted plastic ready for shipment to another Viridor plant for the next stage in the recycling process. Several students in the module are working directly on questions related to reducing waste and improving recycling, both through awareness and behavioural change.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A group of students registered on The Anthropocene: Planetary Crises and the Age of Humans module recently visited the Viridor plastics&#8217; recycling plant in Rochester. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/2020\/03\/17\/students-visit-plastics-recycling-plant-to-further-embed-sustainability-across-the-curriculum\/\">Read&nbsp;more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40284,"featured_media":4589,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[124,6600,159350],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4588"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40284"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4588"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4596,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4588\/revisions\/4596"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/sac-news-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}