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Last year, we generated around 1,530 tonnes of waste here on campus. 

We managed to recycle a third, but we want to get that total closer to 50% by the end of 2025… and we need your help! 

We’re looking for Eco Champions who can spare an hour to encourage others to recycle and reuse in our campus cafés. 

Disposing of that remaining waste cost us almost £320,000, so you’ll be helping to save the planet and save the University money. 

Why are we doing this? 

Our new Eco Champions scheme aims to help our campus community to recycle more and use fewer disposable cups. 

In October, we threw away 37,177 disposable cups in our Sussex Uni Food cafés: Eat Central, ACCA Café, Botanical Café, the Library Café, Doctor’s Orders, Arts Piazza Cafe and the Veg Bowl @ Dhaba.  

If these were stacked up, the pile would be almost as tall as the Empire State Building.   

What can I do to help? 

One way to reduce waste is by asking coffee lovers to bring their own cup when buying hot drinks on campus. You’ll save 20p every time you bring your own cup to a Sussex Uni Food café, and if you pay £3.95 to be part of the returnable cup scheme you can swap your cup for a token any time to avoid carrying it around. Plus your first coffee is absolutely free! 

So we want you to dedicate just one hour to spend in a café as an Eco Champion, encouraging people to use their own cup and explaining the benefits of ditching the disposables. 

We also want help to improve recycling rates in Eat Central, where a new bank of bins was introduced in September 2024. Since it reopened, the new-look eatery has revolutionised the way we handle our waste. There’s no dedicated rubbish bin anymore; instead, diners have to separate out all their waste at one of the two recycling banks. 

Our Eco Champions will help lunchtime diners to understand which bin to use when they’ve finished their meals to improve our recycling rates and reduce contamination (where the wrong item goes into the bin by mistake). 

How can I get involved? 

Email sustainable@sussex.ac.uk to register your interest. We’ll send you all the information you will need, along with a link to a shared online calendar where you can put your name down for as many volunteering slots as you like. 

Staff can earn Green Impact points for helping out, while students can bank five Spirit of Sussex Award points and win other goodies if they take part!

This work supports the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals: SDG 12 (responsible consumption and production) and SDG 13 (climate action).You can read more about our work on the SDGs here.