I am fortunate to work with a UK university that runs one of the most effective, integrated, low-contamination recycling systems in higher education. If someone asked me how a university can operate as sustainably as possible, my glib answer would always be: do what they do.
Simple on paper, difficult in practice; unless
you’re my client, who pull it off with quiet, clinical precision.
For years, I assumed the Deposit Return Scheme and
the inevitable Reverse Vending Machines that come with it were a given for
universities. It felt obvious. They sell bottled drinks and cans through campus
shops, cafés, refectories, vending machines, JCR bars, everywhere.
Why on earth would a university risk
inconveniencing students and staff by sending them offsite with empties? And
why would any institution willingly give up the weight of all that clean
aluminium and PET, only to see their residual waste percentage creep upwards
because the recyclables have literally walked off campus?
But the more you unpick it, the more the ‘obvious’
answer stops being the right one. Like all genuinely sustainable organisations,
their strategy is built on three core KPIs:
- Reduce overall waste generated per capita
- Increase the percentage recycled per
capita
- Reduce landfill input to zero wherever
practicable
Waste reduction is always at the top of the waste
hierarchy: preventing waste is the most environmentally beneficial action,
followed by reuse, recycling, recovery and only then disposal. Avoiding the
waste in the first place solves most of the downstream problems before they
even exist.
By not having RVMs, a university can avoid two
hidden pitfalls: they don’t attract off-campus visitors wandering in to cash
their bottles and cans meaning they don’t inherit other people’s waste and
anyone buying a drink onsite is subtly encouraged to take the empty off campus
to claim their refund elsewhere. The material leaves the system before it can
appear in their waste statistics.
There’s also a practical detail in the wider Deposit
Return debate: universities aren’t mandated to host RVMs as most campus
shops fall under the 100 m² retail exemption, so they are under no legal
obligation to install machines. To take part, they must actively opt in and
with that comes the cost of buying or renting the equipment.
REUSE IS BETTER VALUE
If you are already performing strongly against your
waste KPIs, the question becomes unavoidable: is this really the best use of
money? For many institutions, those funds are far better channelled into the
interventions that genuinely shift behaviour such as reuse models, take-back
schemes and real waste-reduction initiatives rather than installing machines
simply because the sector assumes you should.
The result is often a neat reduction in overall
waste tonnage, an improvement in per-capita performance, and, inevitably, a
welcome reduction in the waste invoice.
Universities shouldn’t reject RVMs because they
don’t believe in recycling; they should reject them because their existing
systems are already working and adding a new one may only dilute what is
already effective.
LIMITED SUCCESS
A study in North Bengaluru found that even where
RVMs were installed, their impact was far from guaranteed. Success was limited
by four familiar barriers: awareness, convenience, incentives, and user
involvement. Unless people know the machine exists, can reach it easily, see
clear value in using it and feel part of the process, the shiny box on the wall
doesn’t shift behaviour.
RVMs are a tool, not a miracle and like any tool,
they only work when the environment is right. Sustainability isn’t about
copying what everyone else is doing; it’s about understanding what actually
works in your own environment and if a university’s system is already
delivering low contamination, high capture rates and solid KPI performance,
then the smartest move may not be adding more infrastructure. It should be
doubling down on what already works: reducing waste at source, expanding reuse,
strengthening take-back models, and making waste prevention the cultural norm
rather than an afterthought. Thanks to UOR - link - More like this (DRS) - link - more like this (DRS) - link - more like this (university) - link
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