Look out for these labels to tell you which recycling bin to use

The bags for recycling will be in every kitchen - don't throw them away!

We all need to do more to reduce, reuse and recycle the waste that we produce in our daily lives. 

We currently recycle a third of our waste on campus – help us get this to 50% by the end of 2025. 

We are looking for ways to increase our recycling rates to save energy and precious natural resources. Here’s your guide to what you can recycle on campus: 

Do you live on campus? 

You can recycle these types of materials outside your residence:  

• plastic bottles 
• cardboard and paper 
• cans and tins 
• glass bottles and jars. 

Your kitchen should have two bags to help you carry recycling outside. These will go into bins outside your building which will be labelled as ‘mixed recycling’ (for plastic bottles, cardboard and paper, and cans and tins) and ‘mixed glass’ (for glass bottles and jars).

These should all be separated from your general rubbish or trash: bag that up in a rubbish bag and put it in the large bins marked ‘general waste’.

What about other items?

There are some items your Building Manager or school office can help you to reuse or recycle – please visit the recycling pages on our website to find out more. 

There are dedicated bins for everything from vapes and batteries to Tetrapaks around our campus.

Do you live in Brighton and Hove? 

Like on campus, you can only recycle plastic bottles, cardboard and paper, and cans and tins at home; you should also separate out your glass bottles and jars. You can’t recycle mixed plastic pots, tubs and trays – it’s plastic bottles only. You can’t recycle disposable coffee cups or foil either.  

To find out more, take a look at this A-Z of recycling from the city council. 

If I’m not sure, should I chuck it in the recycling? 

Sometimes people try to be sustainable by putting certain items in with the recycling. But this ‘wish-cycling’ contaminates the recycling, and the whole bin of recyclable material may not be recycled. 

If in doubt, leave it out! We want to recycle right every time, so none of our recycling gets rejected at the plant.

Recycling around the campus 

All students and staff can play a part in boosting our recycling rates by separating your waste when you’re out and about on campus. 

We’re taking steps to make this easier, like introducing the new recycling banks at Eat Central where you can separate out your food waste and your disposable coffee cups.

We are working on ways to recycle these disposable cups but we also want to reduce the amount we use, which is why we have launched a new reusable cup scheme.

It’s available in Eat Central, ACCA Café, Botanical Café, the Library Café and the Veg Bowl @ Dhaba and joining the scheme costs just £3.95. It will save you money in the long term and it’s much more convenient than carrying your empty cup around – plus it will save thousands of cups from going in the bin.   

Why we’re trying to recycle more

Recycling is a good way to ensure that the materials in the item can be used again to make something new.

Creating new items from recycled material means less energy and resources are used than if it was made from raw material. 

For some materials, you can recycle them in other ways here on campus – take a look at our A-Z of recycling at Sussex which covers everything from unused deodorants to laptops. 

And remember that it’s even better to reuse than recycle, so check out these organisations if you have items to give away: 

• Freegle 
• Freecycle 
• British Heart Foundation 
• Emmaus 

You can also use food sharing apps Olio and TooGoodToGo to pick up cheap, or even free, food to stop it going to waste.