The impact of 70,000 students vacating Manchester at the end of each academic year is vast and there are many unwanted items that could go to better use. The British Heart Foundation (BHF) collects many of these items, from clothes, shoes, books, pots, pans and crockery to electrical items and furniture.

The end of term reuse campaign, known as ‘Give It Don’t Bin It’ is aimed at encouraging students to donate instead of leaving unwanted items to go into landfill, which can be costly to remove and environmentally damaging. The campaign now has six partners involved – The University of Manchester, The University of Manchester Students’ Union, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester Metropolitan University Students’ Union, Manchester City Council and Manchester Student Homes.

This is the first university partnership campaign in the UK to collect donations, raising more than £1 million as part of an end of term scheme.

Give It Don’t Bin It has once again been a success in 2018. Since 1 April 2018, residents in University of Manchester halls of residence have donated over 2,100 bags to the British Heart Foundation. The estimated value of this stock is over £30 000 to the charity when it is sold in their stores.

In 2017 over 26,472 bags of unwanted items were donated across the whole Manchester network. This equates to 211.8 tonnes to BHF, resulting in a £74,500 saving from landfill. These donations have helped save 2,155,244kg of CO2 greenhouse gas emissions and raised over £376,000 for The British Heart Foundation. Over 2,564 meals were also donated to Manchester Central Foodbank from food which would have otherwise been discarded.

For more information visit www.giveitdontbinit.co.uk