Plastic and Waste Minimisation

Waste and recycling

Plastic and waste products present an ever-growing challenge to our society and our planet.

As outlined within our Environmental Sustainability Plan (2019-2025), the University has a soft plastics recycling program in partnership with Plastic Police, which turns plastic bags into benches providing added outdoor seating across campus. The program has collected and recycled over 362,500 pieces of soft plastic to date.

Plastic Free is an ongoing campaign designed to support our staff, students and community in a shift away from single-use plastic to more sustainable alternatives. Our goal is to remove single-use plastic products from key areas on campuses by the end of 2025. We are working with our partners and community through staged education and collaborative initiatives on campus, including:

  • Introduction of reusable container schemes and compostable takeaway food packaging at food outlets
  • Transition to plastic-free products and compostable stationery at retail stores
  • Removal of single-use plastic at University-catered events
  • Participation in circular economy schemes that minimise new plastic consumption.

See our Plastic Free Guide for tips and tricks.

Sustaining your coffee addiction

Did you know that 2,700,000 coffee cups are thrown out every day?

When thinking about your morning coffee habit, there’s a few things you can do to reduce your waste, including:

  • BYO cup (and enjoy a discount from many of our campus retailers).
  • ‘Hug a mug’ - borrow a mug from one of our coffee retailers such as Aroma Café (Hunter building) and receive a discounted coffee.
  • Find a Simply Cups recycling station on campus and flip, tip, slip! See a map of locations.

Not near a recycling station? Don’t fret. Separate your cup and lid – lids go in the nearest yellow recycling bin, and cups in a red landfill bin.

Our recycling measures are part of our waste recycling target set in our Environmental Sustainability Plan (2019-2025).

Simply cups recycling program

The University will continue its partnership with the Plastic Police in the successful Bags to Benches initiative. This sees the transformation of soft plastics recycled by staff and students across the university into outdoor benches on campus, embodying circular economy principles to recirculate materials and minimise waste. To find out where you can recycle your soft plastics at Callaghan, visit the campus map.