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Toolkit to getting started
This guidance has been developed to raise awareness of buildings and facilities managers and staff within FE premises about the importance of taking early action to tackle waste generated within the organisation. It provides an overview of the challenges facing the UK as a whole to deal with its waste, and how your organisation and the FE system as a whole can start to take action to make a strong contribution to promote waste minimisation and move towards more sustainable waste management practices. The guidance provides links to a number of detailed waste guides and resources that have been prepared specifically to help FE providers or educational establishments to take steps towards improving waste minimisation and management on their estate.
There is a wealth of information about waste minimisation and waste management available through resources such as those provided by Envirowise, but most of the information it provides is targeted towards businesses or individual households, and not FE organisations. To address this gap, the Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges has produced an online Waste Management Guide (external website) that is targeted directly at FE and HE (FHE) providers.
The Waste Management Guide does not attempt to provide comprehensive advice on managing every possible waste arising from FHE organisations, but aims to provide a framework for building a waste management system and then provides useful signposting to other sources of more detailed information where appropriate. It gives guidance on developing a structured approach to waste management within an educational environment, advice on arranging and contracting for disposal of waste, and information about different types of waste likely to be encountered for disposal.
There are a number of main steps to developing and implementing an effective and sustainable approach to waste within the management of your buildings and estates:
There is a wealth of information about waste minimisation and waste management available through resources such as those provided by Envirowise, but most of the information it provides is targeted towards businesses or individual households, and not FE organisations. To address this gap, the Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges has produced an online Waste Management Guide (external website) that is targeted directly at FE and HE (FHE) providers.
The Waste Management Guide does not attempt to provide comprehensive advice on managing every possible waste arising from FHE organisations, but aims to provide a framework for building a waste management system and then provides useful signposting to other sources of more detailed information where appropriate. It gives guidance on developing a structured approach to waste management within an educational environment, advice on arranging and contracting for disposal of waste, and information about different types of waste likely to be encountered for disposal.
There are a number of main steps to developing and implementing an effective and sustainable approach to waste within the management of your buildings and estates:
- Assess your current waste how much waste is produced, what types of waste are produced, which departments produce which types of waste, where is the waste disposed to.
- Identify opportunities for savings use the waste hierarchy to identify where waste can be eliminated, reduced, reused, recycled.
- Establish priorities for action to establish some “quick wins”, which activities would achieve the greatest results (e.g. volume/weight of waste, value of disposal costs saved); the fastest results and which would have greatest impact on staff and learners?
- Set targets, agree data collection requirements.
- Implement waste minimisation and waste management actions.
- Monitor progress.
- Review the results, identify successes.
- Promote achievements, implement continuous improvements to the waste management plan.
