The 7 February saw the launch of Recycle Week at the University. Throughout this week we answered recycling questions posed by staff and students through our social media channels (@UoMSust) and released videos on YouTube of leading experts, both on and off campus, who deal with waste, recycling and plastic. All of the videos and written answers to questions can now be found on our new Environmental Sustainability Recycle Week 2022 webpage.

With the help of these experts, we were able to answer questions such as: Is biodegradable plastic really biodegradable? Why is access to recycling so inequitable across the UK, even between neighbouring regions? Why can’t we just ban single use plastic? What are the barriers for doing this?

Many more questions are answered on our YouTube channel.

As we have so many specialists to hand at The University of Manchester, we’re happy to take more questions on waste, recycling and plastics on or off campus, which you can send to es@manchester.ac.uk.

We hope that through this year’s and successive year’s Recycle Weeks we can help educate and inform staff, students and the public and generate discussions on this important topic.