Cardiff’s student population has responded in style to the call to Get It Out for Cardiff this year. The scheme to collect and re-use unwanted items that previously would’ve been destined for the streets or landfill has been a resounding success with over 7.5 tonnes of items collected at halls of residence and the Students Union.
The re-usable items collected were:
- Electricals – 500kg
- Books – 430kg
- Food – 500kg
- Bric a Brac/kitchen utensils – 950kg
- Textiles – 5250kg
With some halls taking collections through until September these impressive figures are likely to increase still further.
The following charities will benefits from the variety of items collected: -British Heart Foundation: Small electrical items such as kettles, toasters, printers, mobile phones, irons etc
- Fareshare: In date, un-opened foods (not fresh) eg. tins, packets etc
- Barnardos: Clothes, belts, shoes and bags.
- Cardiff Council/ Media Bank: Books including textbooks, DVDs, CDs and tapes
- Kitchen bric-a-brac such as utensils and cutlery is being collected by RAG for resale at the Union this September.
The space needed to store all these items was considerable but Cardiff Self Storage kindly stepped into the breach and stored all the items collected for free. Extra waste collections The scheme also included extra waste collections in Cathays, Roath and Gabalfa over 3 weekends in June with the good news continuing as the amount collected was reduced from 225 tonnes last year to 211 tonnes. The recycling rate also improved from 28% to 31%.
Executive Member for Environment, Cllr Margaret Jones, said, “Once again, the Get it Out for Cardiff team has excelled in diverting items that might have been thrown away and potentially cause a mess on the streets. To have collected over 7 tonnes of items that can be reused is an excellent achievement with the huge added bonus of charities benefitting too. The extra collections worked well too so congratulations must go out to everyone involved. It just goes to show what can be achieved when everyone works together, this is a model for partnership working.”
Student Liaison Officer, Kieran McCann said, “What an incredible achievement, thanks to some great partnership working we have managed to divert over 7 tonnes of material from landfill, collected items that can be re-used and ultimately helped a number of worthwhile charities raise valuable funds. Thank you to all the students who donated their items and to all KCT partners and stakeholders who have assisted to make this ‘tonnes’ of success.”
