Hi there,

Thank you so much for your 'You Make Change' submission. Apologies for the delay in response, we have been undergoing training of the new team and communicating with the University Estates Team to get an answer for your query. 

In response they said, "The TerraCycle schemes, both those that are free and those that have to be paid for, are quite complex and require a lot of input.  They appear to work best when a “Champion” takes up the cause of a particular item, i.e.  The Babybel® Recycling Programme, The Cheese Packaging Recycling Programme, The Lavazza Eco Caps Composting Programme, etc., and runs them independently.  However, the SU would be a good candidate to run any conjoined schemes.  The majority of items that can be collected via the TerraCycle schemes can already be disposed of via our existing recycling scheme, however, some items that are collected via this route will eventually be used to generate energy, rather than be recycled.".

We have been looking into this at SUSU for a while now. Our Chief Operating Officer, Paul Davie, has been liasing with Terracycle over the past a few months. However, conversations seem to have dissipated. I will investigate bringing this conversation "back to the table". As Sustainability is one of my main Sabbatical priorities I will be providing constant updates on this via our social media platforms, so stay posted. 

I am going to close this submission for now as this will likely be a long term project. If you have any further questions or concerns please feel free to email me at president@soton.ac.uk or submit another YMC!

All the best,

Oliver Murray

Union President 2022-2023