12. Resource efficiency and waste

Message to our students and staff

All business, industry and communities share legal and social responsibilities to promote and protect human health and the environment. We do this by safely, responsibly and efficiently managing and reducing waste, maximising waste reuse, recycling, and finding opportunities to generate resources.

As a large organisation, we deal with staff, student, visitor and supplier waste. This means Charles Sturt University contends with a host of operational waste issues, not least the increasing costs of disposal charges and landfill taxes, but also the possible future requirement to measure and report scope 3 carbon emissions relating to waste through the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Scheme (NGERS).

• See the Resource Efficiency & Waste Factsheet [PDF 92KB]

Importance of resource efficiency and waste in sustainability

There are increasingly stringent legal requirements for handling and disposing of our waste safely and efficiently. By meeting these requirements, Charles Sturt University avoids enforcement action, but may also cut costs or save money.

Many legislative requirements apply to all institutional waste, while some apply only to specific types of waste.

Benefits of implementing a successful resource and waste management strategy include:

• Saving money
• Cutting costs
• Meeting environmental responsibilities and legal obligations
• Sourcing revenue by reusing or recycling.

Progress towards best practice

This framework was benchmarked in 2015. The below graph illustrates our progress towards best practice across the eight (8) activity areas. The green bars reaching four (4) highlight best practice and the lower bars in blue indicate Charles Sturt University’s current baseline ratings.

Action Plan

• See the Resource Efficiency and Waste Action Plan [PDF 118KB]

Initiatives

Join Charles Sturt's War On Waste

• Bring your Keep Cup or reusable mug to CHEERS outlets and receive a discount on your hot beverage
• Use a reusable cloth bag at Charlie's Stores and help us say no to plastic bags at the University
• Learn to sew at a sewing bee with our Boomerang Bag community partners - find them on Facebook in your area
• Ask for your food to be served with reusable crockery and cutlery
• Have your drinks without a plastic straw - ask for ice and no straw!
• Show us how you are joining the fight - tag a photo of your waste free efforts to the Sustainability at Charles Sturt Instagram page and don't forget the #CSUWarOnWaste
• Charles Sturt University is single use plastics and straw free!
• Register with My eQuals to receive your university transcripts electronically and save paper!

Charles Sturt University waste production

What you can do

• Avoid, Reduce, Reuse Recycle. Avoiding waste where possible is the best approach to help curb our general waste production
• During move out at end of session, donate unwanted items such as furniture and clothing to charity or post on community group buy swap and sell social pages. A significant amount of waste is generated from students moving out of residence at the end of each year
• Choose products with minimal waste after use (eg: buy loose fruit and vegetable rather than packaged items)
• Use all recycling systems that are available to you (including toner cartridge and battery collection systems)
• Reduce your use of paper: only print when necessary and print double-sided when you can
• Bring your lunch in a reusable container and keep a reusable cup for your coffee purchases
• Use the free water hydration stations
• Take a look at these short film resources [DOC 17KB]

Get to know your bins

Did you know contaminating recycling means that often the whole bin ends up going to landfill?

By knowing "what goes where" you can increase the amount of resources we recover through the recycling system.

Request a new or replacement bin

You can reduce waste on campus and in your office by using the co-mingled (yellow) and paper (blue) bins provided.

If you require a new or replacement bin, you can raise a Pulse request or contact your office administrator to raise on your behalf.