The University of Manchester, Manchester City Council and Manchester Metropolitan University have been working together to create and deliver end of term reuse scheme packs for the Give It Don’t Bin It campaign in support of the British Heart Foundation and Manchester Central Foodbank.

The campaign aims to recycle and reuse unwanted items of clothing and food from students living both on-campus and off-campus, reducing waste in the process. All donations are directly donated to either the British Heart Foundation or Manchester Central Foodbank. In 2016, the donations made by students to the British Heart Foundation totalled an amount equivalent to £230,723, while food donations provided 2,000 meals for the Foodbank.

This year, over the course of two days, student volunteers, staff and Manchester Student Homes landlord volunteers managed to put together a staggering 19,500 packs of information and donations bags. This is vital to the project because these packs make it easier for students to donate. Therefore, the more packs made, the more donations the British Heart Foundation and Manchester Central Foodbank will be able to collect.

The British Heart Foundation also offered students, staff, Manchester Student Homes’ landlords and long term residents participating in the volunteering opportunity had the chance to undertake CPR training. A total of 95 people took part in the training, helping to raise awareness of heart disease while providing the vital skills and knowledge associated with this life-saving treatment.

Give It Don’t Bin It is an annual campaign that encourages all Manchester students leaving the city in the summer to donate their unwanted items to charity and recycle as much as they can.

Staff from the Directorate of the Student Experience, Residences and Manchester Student Homes have worked together in partnership with Manchester City Council, Manchester Metropolitan University and the British Heart Foundation to ensure every room in student halls or off-campus student house receives a ‘Give It Don’t Bin It’ pack. The packs include British Heart Foundation donation bags and Manchester City Council blue and brown recycling bags, which help students to increase their recycling. Donated items often include clothing, shoes, books, handbags, DVD’s/ CD’s and small electrical appliances.

Throughout the last few weeks, over 80 Manchester Leadership Programme students from the University have been volunteering on the campaign to make up the thousands of packs, as well as posting them to all student houses across South Manchester. Long-term residents and student landlords have also volunteered, enabling everyone to work together to benefit the community and foster positive relations. Collectively they have contributed almost 550 hours of volunteering to the campaign.

Every student house received a ‘Give It Don’t Bin It’ pack prior to students preparing to leave Manchester for the summer.

All the partners involved are hoping that the results from this years’ campaign will exceed the amount donated and recycled in 2015. Last year, the campaign resulted in 166 tonnes of unwanted items being donated to the British Heart Foundation which raised over £322,000 to help the charity fund lifesaving research and treatments for Greater Manchester people living with heart disease. Furthermore Manchester City Council was able to reduce the amount of items sent to landfill, helping the environment as well as saving £50,000 in landfill costs! FareShare is also a charity partner – last year, the food students donated was the equivalent of 2,000 meals. This enabled FareShare to help local people living in food poverty.

To find out more about the Give It Don’t Bin It campaign, please go to the Manchester Student Partnership website.