Recycling in UCC

UCC is moving towards a binless office system, which is widely regarded as best practice in improving recyling rates. Across common areas on campus, you will see a system similar to the one pictured. Where large amounts of a specific recyleable item are likley to be produced, a desiganate bin for that item will be provided e.g. paper. Please take a moment to look at the labelling on each bin before disposing of your waste.

Recycling in Ireland

If you are unsure on what can be recycled in Ireland then please visit the My Waste website, where you can search for any item.  A full list of items is also provided by Repak and can be downloaded here: Recycling list.  If you have any queries about recycling in UCC, or have a large amount of a specific waste type to dispose of, then please contact General Services.

Clean and Dry

Clean and Dry - Any recycling that has contained food should be clean and dry to avoid contaminating the rest of the bin contents.

How Clean? - If you would happily throw the contents of your recycling bin out on your floor then that is good enough. 

Contamination - What should I do?

Contaminents - If food or other contaminents are embedded in the materials then it can't be recycled and must go into the general waste bin.

Ditch the Disposables

UCC aims to be Zero Waste Campus

The UCC SUP Policy covers SUPs sold by UCC’s suppliers and subsidiary companies and any market stalls permitted to trade on UCC campus. The items covered by this policy include:

• Single-Use beverage containers i.e. coffee cups, drinks cups etc.
• Single-Use salad containers/lunch boxes
• Single-Use plastic cutlery
• Single-Use plastic bottles (e.g. for water/ soft drinks)
• Further SUP items may be added to this list at a later date by the SUP Action Group, and it will be clearly communicated to all relevant stakeholders where applicable

The Policy agreed that the 1st January 2023, all disposable cups and plastic bottles will have been completely phased out of all UCC Restaurants, catering and vending services.

A Guide to Single Use Plastic Free UCC

When you come to UCC Campus, as student, staff member or visitor, here are some tips to ensure a smooth, single-use plastic free visit!

1. Bring your own reusable cup.  If you need to clean your cup while on campus there are freshcup machines at various locations including the main restaurant.
2. If you don't have your own cup, many outlets will provide you with crockery.  These include Aras na MacLeinn, the main restaurant and Roots cafe in the Hub.
3. Some outlets don't offer crockery, but you can avail of a reusable cup on loan for deposit of €2.  Return the cup afterwards and get your €2 back!
4. If you're thirsty, there are numerous internal and external water refilling stations across campus.  You can find them on this map.  Other beverages are available in cans or tetrapak bottles, or you can use the soft drink refill station at the main restaurant.

Reducing Food Waste on Campus

In late 2022, UCC's contracted catering supplier initiated a collaboration with "Positive Carbon". Positive Carbon use artificial intelligence technology and a fully automated monitoring system to identify all food entering food waste bins.  Detailed real time reporting provides trends and statistics. The data provides visibility to enable changes to preparation, production and purchasing decisions.  For example, having seen early results, the UCC KSG team changed the menu offerings in the staff restaurant to align more closely with what was on offer in the main restaurant and reduce food waste from that outlet.

How we're doing

To date, the University has reduced its consumption of disposable cups by over two million units. Plastic bottle consumption has fallen by over 250,000. Food waste has been reduced by an average of 34%, though this is significantly higher for certain types of food.  For example, in the first 6 months of 2024, beef waste fell by 66%, chicken waste fell by 40% and potato waste fell by 41%. In addition, the impact of UCC’s new printing policy has been significant.

With regard to paper, in 2019, the pre-tender print volume was measured at 18.7 million prints per year. This has now fallen to just under 5 million.   This has seen a direct impact on waste tonnages; in 2019, confidential shredding accounted for 93 tonnes of waste (almost 9% of total waste), in 2022 this number was 12 tonnes. These reductions have seen a corresponding staggering reduction in the institutions overall waste tonnages.

UCC’s total diversion of waste from landfill is currently at 96%. While the dramatic decrease in the amount of waste generated is a positive, there is still more to be done in terms of recycling rates. UCC’s overall recycling rate for 2023 was 49%. This is well below the national targets for recycling. It is hoped that over time, the removal of disposable coffee cups, a major contaminant in campus bins, will improve this rate.

Reducing Paper Consumption on Campus

As a University, paper historically accounted for a sigificant amount of our overall waste tonnage.  In 2019, the University introduced a new Sustainable Print Management policy, which saw a move to networked printing and a pay-per page model across campus.  Additionally, the Graduate Studies Office updated their guidelines to allow for electronic submission of research theses.  Combined with the forced move to online working brought about by the Covid pandemic, these two measures saw a huge reduction in our overall peper consumption.

UCC Sustainable Print Policy

In 2019 UCC's procirement office tendered for a managed printing service with sustainability as a key service deliverable. The positive environemental impact of the tender approach, coupled with value for money, just shows what can be achieved when we put sustainability to the fore.

Tender Outcome

The print management service was awarded to Cantec Ireland, who:

• Will help realise an 80% reduction in the number of printing devices across the university.
• Only install reconditioned printing devices
• Set all printers to duplex and mono printing settings
• Deployed network print management software to give insight into UCC's print consumption

Sustainability Impacts

Through this new service, we have: 

• Avoided the manufacture of new printing machines
• Redcued our CO2 emissions attributed to printing by 60%
• Eliminated unnecessary printing through user authentication
• Reduced energy consumption of printing by 50%
• Inspired Cantec to move to electrification of their fleet

Our Printing Policy

Developed by the procurement office our new policy promotes:

• Printing only when no pratical alternative exists
• Duplex and mono printing as the default settings
• Single source service provider for all printing devices
• Recycling program for used toners
• Visibility on the university's printing needs and quantities
• Use of automated processes to further reduce the need for printing