The University of Manchester’s Sustainable Materials Innovation (SMI) Hub has been working with the Environmental Services Unit to produce compost used on campus grounds. The SMI hub, which is based in the Henry Royce Institute, has an industrial sized composting machine which is used as part of an initiative to assess the claims of packaging labelled as compostable or biodegradable.

The compost, which is produced on site at an industrial scale, is collected in reusable bags for use across campus, which drastically cuts down the amount on plastic waste compared to using pre-packaged compost.

Because the waste from which the compost is made is sourced locally, and both its creation and use takes place on campus, the product never travels further than a few miles.

This has dramatically decreased the carbon footprint associated with sourcing compost and has facilitated a positive relationship between academics who are at the forefront of sustainability research and the invaluable work of those making the University a greener place.

Landscape Foreman, Lewis Brown says: “The Environmental Services team holds sustainability and greener practices as central to what we do. By working alongside academics at the SMI hub, we have eliminated a lot of unnecessary plastic waste and reduced the carbon footprint of the compost we use. Small changes can have a big impact and we hope that moving forward we can continue to put these positive changes in to practice.”