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Let students know what they’ve achieved. This further increases engagement and motivation.

Ensure the results are relatable and easy to understand. Use waste hauler reports to create easy to understand charts and graphs. Post them next to the bins and share on social media.

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Encourage students to create video presentations about what initiatives are running at the university to recycle more and cut down on single-use plastic. Students can then upload the videos onto social media, reaching a more significant number of students so that every student can feel involved and empowered to make a change.

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Universities should work with vendors to ensure the products that are brought into the University are both recyclable and compostable.

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Student green teams can create relevantly and impactful messaging that resonates with their peers. This helps spread the word about what’s happening on campus with recycling and other sustainability initiatives. It becomes a tribal movement rather than a directive from the administration.

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Standardise – use the same bins, same graphics and same colours across campus.

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Standardise – use the same bins, same graphics and same colours across campus.

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Recycling containers need to be consistent in all areas to help students make the right choice when they're at the bins. Uniform colours and graphics can help reduce contamination levels and increase diversion rates. This can also help reduce the amount of money the university charges for the bins containing mixed rubbish.

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Conduct a waste audit to determine where volume and and type of waste that is being generated on campus. The audit can identify if any specialised bins are required. The waste audit provides a snap shot of the situation, and gives you a starting point for setting your diversion rate goals. Setting goals will help the students know what they’re aiming for.

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Encourage students to use recycled materials in their art projects, from water bottles to paper to beads. Keep a scrap paper box in every lecture hall. Put a printer ink recycle bin in each classroom. You can collect these and turn them in for money at various businesses, which can be used to fund university activities

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Encourage students to work with lecturers to organise a committee promoting the benefits of recycling. Students respond very well to their peers so more chance to they will adopt the recycling challenge.

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Education and awareness of recycling schemes

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Education and awareness of recycling schemes

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Recycling schemes can sometimes succeed with little attention but more often than not, staff and students have to be helped by being reminded of the importance of recycling. It is also important to ensure that people are provided with up-to-date information to help them contribute to the various schemes.

Arrange a programme of events that will help to raise awareness of your recycling schemes. Specifically this should include an induction for both new and existing students and staff and may tie in to broader environmental and sustainability issues.
For further information about training and education refer to Structured Approach

Use posters and publicise your initiatives in the student and staff press as well as over the institution’s intranet.

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Offer a reduced coffee/hot drink price when students bring their own reusable cup. Offer £1 off for not requiring a takeaway cup. Alternatively offer a reward stamp system where a certain number of return visits with your reusable cup earns you a free drink.

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Place water fountains around campus that mean any student who has brought their own water bottle can fill up throughout the day free of charge using their refillable water bottle from home. This will reduce the amount or water/fizzy drink bottles/cans being put in the bins.

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Make sure recycling & waste labels on all bins are clear and easy to understand. Our campus has students from all parts of the globe that speak many different languages. By use impactful graphics with clearly identifiable images we will remove any language barrier that may cause a wrong choice at the bins. Make sure the graphics are clear and that  they’re consistent throughout the university.

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Brand our recycling program to encourage students to take ownership. If they feel proud of our university and want to be proud of all the good things that we are trying to do for the environment. By holding competitions in high traffic areas we will help to spread the word about the recycling program. We could share videos of students winning prizes for recycling properly.

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Standardise the programme by using the same bins, same colours and graphics across campus. The recycling containers need to be consistent in all these areas to help students make the right choice when they’re at the bins. Consistent colours and graphics help reduce the chances of bin mix ups and increase recycling rates.

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Discover the volume and type of waste that’s being generated on campus by doing a waste audit. This will determine exactly what is being thrown away on campus, in any of the bins. This will help us to select containers with the correct capacity and place them in the right locations.

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What Students Believe will Encourage them to Recycle more.

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What Students Believe will Encourage them to Recycle more.

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The final question of the survey was asking students what they feel would encourage them to recycle more. Of the 22 responses we received, a common theme emerged of 2 answers. The first was more clarity as to where to recycle and what types of recyclables go where. Secondly, students feel that some sort of reward for recycling on campus would encourage them to take more time when recycling.

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Research Into Student Recycling Attitudes

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Research Into Student Recycling Attitudes

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We created a short survey and sent it out amongst students from various different universities to better understand their attitudes to recycling. We received over 20 responses from students in Swansea University as well as UWTSD and others. Just over 86% of the students who responded to the survey were aged between 18-25. Despite 45.5% of students always recycling and 40.9% often recycling, only 4.5% of responders did not think that their University had a problem with recycling.

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Recycling facts that’ll encourage you to recycle where you can

1. Recycling is known as the ‘Seventh Resource’ – the earth’s most important natural resources, that being water, air, oil, natural gas, coal and minerals, are the first six. You know these aren’t infinite, and we’re getting through them fast. Hence the seventh resource, aka recycling, being key to make sure we’re using things not once, but time and time again.

2. Excuse the repetition, but as above, this fact is amazing. “Each year, recyclables save over 700 million tonnes in CO2 emissions. This is projected to increase to 1 billion tons by 2030,” shares the Global Recycling Day website.

3. Their site also shares that recycling offsets all CO2 emissions generated by the aviation industry annually. Think about that for a second.

4.  Using recycled paper saves water, as well as trees. 900,000,000 trees every year are cut down to make paper, and 7,000 gallons of water are used per ton of paper produced. Do your bit – buy recycled.

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The Psychology Behind Why People Don't Recycle - If it's not extremely easy, people won't do it.

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The Psychology Behind Why People Don't Recycle - If it's not extremely easy, people won't do it.

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1. The ‘No-Time’ Non-Recycler
The excuse: Recycling is inconvenient, time-consuming or too costly.

The experts say: Iacoviello thinks the crude cost-benefit analysis people do when evaluating recycling’s benefit to them emphasizes the immediate over the long term.

2. The Aluminum Can Confuser
The excuse: Isn’t sure what’s recyclable and what’s not; doesn’t understand recycling’s benefit.

The experts say: Recycling can be confusing. It differs from community to community and rules about recycling have changed over time.

3. The Debris Denier
The excuse: Believes recycling doesn’t makes a difference, isn’t important or is a low priority (”always forgets” to recycle).

The experts say: Despite tangible evidence to the contrary, some respondents still said they didn’t think recycling makes a difference.

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According to the most recent government figures, almost a fifth of all waste is generated by businesses, and disposing of it can carry a high price.

Companies end up counting not only the environmental but also the financial cost of the waste they generate. Landfill tax, paid by any business creating landfill waste, has risen to £91.35 per tonne, with the Government continually increasing the rate in an attempt to encourage businesses to recycle more of their refuse. It will rise to £94.15 from April 1, 2021.

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1. Inconvenience
Like the rest of us, students won’t recycle if they can’t find an available recycling bin, if the ones provided are full or if they lack instructional signage.  A 2009 study from the National Institutes of Health found that a lack of available facilities was the number one reason students gave for not recycling regularly. The same reason ranked number one or two in all of the studies we looked at.
2. Lack of Information
The other top barrier to campus recycling is a lack of reliable, easily accessible information to tell them what goes where. For students, a lack of instruction affects their daily recycling behaviour throughout the University year.
3. Time
Let’s face it; no one has enough time these days. Students are juggling assignments, newly developed social lives and possibly also a job or two. What differentiates them from the older set is only that these demands on their time are new, which means they might not have developed strategies to stay on schedule.
4. Priorities
Students freshly entering a college or university environment are often overwhelmed by change and unstructured independence, and the idea of recycling can take a backseat. As they mature as students, they might find themselves under increasing pressure to perform well in class or bowing to social pressures to party, pushing recycling even further down the priority list.

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People make a lot of assumptions about today's youth, college and university students in particular. "Millennials are lazy, entitled and self-absorbed," an early Time Magazine article screamed. But the truth is far more complex, and the current college crowd continues to defy the stereotypes.

So, how to college students really feel about recycling?

Well, the good news is that today's young people have grown up with a sense of global awareness about sustainability and the importance of green living. There are also aspects of their collective behaviors that, properly directed, can turn them into leaders for positive, sustainable change.

The downside is that students still aren't recycling as much as they should, so we decided to take a look at their overall attitudes to see why this is the case. As it turns out, most of the barriers to recycling for students are much the same as everyone else's. The 5 key issues inhibiting student recycling are:
1. Go Green! (Now what?)
There is both good and bad news regarding current students' awareness of sustainability and environmental concerns. A 2015 study for the Journal of Building Construction and Planning Research discovered that 86.4 percent of students surveyed had heard of sustainability, though only 35 percent felt they knew what it really meant. Only about 18 percent of the survey group felt they had a strong understanding of the concept. The study concluded that while media is bombarding today's students with information about environmental concerns, awareness remains superficial. In other words, they know there's a problem, but they aren't really clear what to do about it.

On the other hand, a 2014 study from the University of Iowa determined that 51 percent of students in their dataset recycle "as much as possible," while only 9 percent said they don't recycle at all. Among the latter set, the two main reasons cited for not recycling were lack of available space and no available information on how and where to recycle. Taken in tandem, these studies suggest that while awareness and the desire to recycle exist, students need an actionable plan and facilities to help them see programs through. (For similar studies, see also: NIH, U.Guelph.)
2. Inconvenience
Like the rest of us, students won't recycle if they can't find an available recycling bin, if the ones provided are full or if they lack instructional signage. A 2009 study from the National Institutes of Health found that a lack of available facilities was the number one reason students gave for not recycling regularly, and the same reason ranked number one or two in all of the studies we looked at.
3. Lack of Information
The other top barrier to campus recycling is a lack of reliable, easily accessible information to tell them what goes where. For students, a lack of instruction affects their daily recycling behavior throughout the school year, but it is a particular concern when they are moving in and moving out. Even students with a strong education in recycling best practices might be at a loss when it comes to disposing of furniture shipping containers when they move in or offloading used mattresses and furniture at the end of the year.
4. Time
Let's face it; no one has enough time these days. Students are juggling school work, newly developed social lives and possibly also a job or two. What differentiates them from the older set is only that these demands on their time are new, which means they might not have developed strategies to stay on schedule.
5. Priorities
Students freshly entering a college or university environment are often overwhelmed by change and unstructured independence, and the idea of recycling can take a backseat. As they mature as students, they might find themselves under increasing pressure to perform well in class or bowing to social pressures to party, which pushes recycling even further down the priority list.
Dealing with Distractions
Finally, the one key differentiator between today's incoming college students and older generations is digital noise. As social media natives, young people today consider distraction to be normal. Social media, digital apps, online games and quizzes all offer a steady stream of personalized information and activities that students juggle alongside their schoolwork and real world activities. They are also notorious multitaskers to a degree not experienced by their elders.

These digital distractions mean students suffer from an attention issue. When it comes to recycling, this means municipalities and schools have to work harder to cut through the noise and ensure that recycling remains front of mind.
Solutions
While there isn't much that municipalities can do to help students find more time or realign their priorities, there is quite a lot that can be done on the education front to help schools make recycling facilities more readily available, and to educate students on their proper use.

Solutions such as the Recycle Coach app help cut through digital distraction and help you communicate with students in familiar technical environment. Recycle Coach offers a suite of tools that help you deliver information to students in a timely manner, in a language they understand.

For more examples of how today's college students defy Millennial stereotypes, see: The Nation, World Economic Forum, US News.

For more information about Millennial recycling habits at colleges and how you can target them:

About Recycle Coach: Recycle Coach specializes in digital solutions for municipal and private waste management services to effectively educate and engage residents. Our technology platforms for web, mobile, and digital assistants focus on education and encouragement to help residents to be better recyclers, with the goal of inspiring positive and lasting change in communities around the world. It is our constant innovation and scalability of services that allow us to meet the needs of over 3000 communities across the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and more.

To view all of our free resources for Waste Management Professionals, please click here.

To learn more about how Recycle Coach can help you reach and educate more residents faster, please click here.

Would you like to start using Recycle Coach for free now? Click below to get started:

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How do College Students Really Feel About Recycling?

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People make a lot of assumptions about today's youth, college and university students in particular. "Millennials are lazy, entitled and self-absorbed," an early Time Magazine article screamed. But the truth is far more complex, and the current college crowd continues to defy the stereotypes.

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Ideas to Help Students Recycle more on Campus 

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Ideas to Help Students Recycle more on Campus 

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After receiving feedback from students, some ideas we could look to implement to help solve the problem of student recycling in the university are as follows:
1. On campus pubs and bars will charge £5 for a reusable cup which students can use for the night and when it is returned to the bar, they will receive their £5 deposit back.
2. Add scanners to bins around campus which students can tap their student card on when recycling. Students can be split into teams, for example, their courses (business, maths, history etc) and the top recycling group for the week can receive discounts for the following week in on campus coffee shops and bars.
3.  The university can invest in reusable plastic bottles for students to use around campus to refill with water. This will cause less plastic water bottles being brought on campus.
4. Social groups issued recycling challenges to complete throughout the year with the winning team at the end of the year being rewarded by the University.

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Well, the good news is that today’s young people have grown up with a sense of global awareness about sustainability and the importance of green living. There are also aspects of their collective behaviors that, properly directed, can turn them into leaders for positive, sustainable change.

The downside is that students still aren’t recycling as much as they should, so we decided to take a look at their overall attitudes to see why this is the case. As it turns out, most of the barriers to recycling for students are much the same as everyone else’s. (https://blog.recyclecoach.com/blog/how-do-college-students-really-feel-about-recycling, 2017).

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People make a lot of assumptions about today’s youth, college and university students in particular. “Millennials are lazy, entitled and self-absorbed,” an early Time Magazine article screamed. But the truth is far more complex, and the current college crowd continues to defy the stereotypes.

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College students have a lot going on. They’re juggling school and work and new-found social networks. Technology has given them access to tremendous quantities of information which they juggle on as many as three mobile devices (laptop, smartphone, tablet) at a time. They’re famous for multitasking – one of the key identifying traits of this generational group – and they repeat this fact with pride, though some studies suggest they aren’t necessarily successful at it.8 With information coming at them from all sides and no way to predict which device they’ll be using to access it, today’s college students can be difficult to reach. As compulsive multitaskers, they may also have trouble concentrating on single ideas or longterm projects, a side effect of living in a world with constant stimulation and digital distractions.

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Waste Production Students also rank high when it comes to waste production. Some recent statistics include • 640 lbs of solid waste = The amount of solid waste an average college student produces each year, WHICH INCLUDES: • 500 disposable cups and 320 lbs of paper 3 • 142 pounds of food waste are generated annually per student; WHICH INCLUDES: • 22 million pounds of uneaten food thrown out by college students each year 4 • 30% = The number of students aged 18 to 30 who don’t recycle at all (compared to 57% of adults aged 55 and above who recycle daily) 5 • 100 tons = The amount of student waste diverted from landfill by the University of New Hampshire’s Post-Landfill Action Network (PLAN) in the first 3 years.

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Today’s college and university students are essential to your recycling outreach and education programs' long-term success. If you fail to instil proper recycling behaviour in young people today, they will likely become non-participating adults. You will have lost the largest and potentially most effective demographic in your near-future resident base. On the other hand, if you can inspire and teach them best practices now, not only will you realize immediate results and boost your waste diversion rates, but you will create a generation of influencers who will make recycling their priority for life. They will pass those habits to their friends and family as well. This is an intensely passionate and socially conscious group of young people who welcome the challenge. (https://info.recyclecoach.com/hubfs/Whitepapers/recyclecoach_university_whitepaper.pdf, 2019).

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Taking on your local student population might seem like more trouble than it’s worth, but taking time to understand this highly energetic demographic can have lasting long term benefits to your community as students graduate, become householders, work and start families.