About Myself
Hello, I’m Zoe and I’m nearing the end of my internship with the Sustainability Team within Estates, which is the department that looks at the operational side of the University – this includes issues/impacts to the environment occurring from travel, energy, construction, and waste. But I’m not leaving the University anytime soon as I have secured a permanent position in the team as Environmental Management Assistant! Previously my focus was on recycling and reuse but this will expand to working on everything I mentioned before and more.
Just last year I graduated from Salford University and had studied BSc Environmental Management which is about studying human’s impact on the planet and how to take a more sustainable approach to development across the board. One of my passions is engaging people with nature and teaching them how to be more sustainable in their own lives and why it’s important to do so. This is what inspired my dissertation, I researched the attitudes and habits surrounding recycling and I found many students wanted to recycle but were not sure how to separate their waste correctly, which is also something I’ve been working on whilst on this internship!
My Role
A lot of my work is quite active, I go out and inspect a lot of the facilities on campus to check things are as they should be, standards are being met and to keep an up-to-date log of each building and facility. We also occasionally check the contents of rubbish bags to find out what sorts of things people are recycling incorrectly. I have designed some new signage to go around campus that will be more informative and help with this, so keep an eye out for that. The main issue is coffee cups as often packaging is misleading and you may think it’s just cardboard but in fact they have a plastic film inside to stop your hot drink soaking right through. This makes it non-recyclable and should be put in general waste. Another confusing option are biodegradable/compostable cups, but these also need to go in general waste not a food/green waste bin.
Other activities I do include finding disused furniture that are still in good condition and listing them online for staff to claim on a system called WARP-it (Waste Action Reuse Portal) which is a redistribution network. This is beneficial in a couple ways; we are stopping things being disposed of to landfill and by not buying new items, which would be a waste of materials and production, therefore reuse helps to greatly reduce emissions. Running the WARP-it system has been my main responsibility and there has been a great response as people are claiming cupboards, coat hooks, and even plant pots for reuse in their department, office or workspace. We also reuse with organisations including other universities, charities and schools.
My favourite part of the internship
During Go Green Salford which is one of the sustainability engagement programmes here at Salford, I did a couple of stalls with my colleagues at the Sustainability Office at a variety of locations on campus. We talked about waste and recycling as well as about carbon footprints of food through playing the How Bad Are Bananas Game. This was great to talk to staff and students and I had some good conversations where people learnt something new and hopefully will help change their habits.
I participated in other events as part of Go Green, including the bioblitz where I learnt about birds on a walk led by a Salford University lecturer, helped on a litter pick and planted some seeds at the community garden that is just behind the library. I also loved building a hedgehog house on Hedgehog Awareness Week – see the picture!
Reflection
I have so many interests in the environmental sector so I’m very pleased that my new role will satisfy that, and Salford is such a great city to be working in as there is a lot of green urban development and many community environmental groups that I love volunteering with. On this internship I have gained valuable insight into environmental management systems and how much scope it can cover – there are so many opportunities here as the university is so vast and people are open to sustainability and innovation. It has also been great experience to work on engagement events and communications as educating people and spreading the message of sustainability is really important, so I look forward to continue working with my colleagues in the Sustainability Office. Something I am most proud of is creating signs for campus bins and I really hope people take a second to think about what they are throwing away and put it in the right bin.
If you have any questions about recycling on campus look at our waste webpage or check out the Recycle for Greater Manchester webpage for information about home recycling.