Boar talks trash

During Go Green Week, the Boar decided to carry out a survey to see whether students would like to see recycling in halls.

Recycling has been an election issue for President of the Students' Union, Joe Kirby in particular.

A greater commitment to recycling has yet to be fully realised under Joe Kirby's leadership.

After much campaigning from People and Planet and the high profile Go Green Week, the university has indicated that in-hall recycling will be finally introduced, possibly before the end of 2008.

But what do students make of the proposal, and is enthusiasm for recycling matched by willingness for action? Boar News has surveyed fifty freshers in Rootes, and then fifty second and final years.

When asked the question, “Would you be willing to separate your rubbish for the purpose of recycling?”, only one fresher said that they would not be willing to do so – that’s 98 per cent endorsement.

On the other hand, it seems that second and final years are relatively more lazy or cynical when it comes to separating their rubbish. Nevertheless, there was still a 76 per cent rate of approval.

When it came to the divide between males and females, it seems that 79 per cent of men against 71 per cent of women wanted to recycle. Of the second years, 21 per cent were not willing to divide their rubbish as opposed the 15 per cent of final years.

This will come as good news to Environment Officer Nick Hillard, Go Green Week Coordinator Hannah Smith, and indeed Joe Kirby. It is envisaged that the new ten year waste management contract being signed this year will contain a clause to allow recycling in halls.

Whilst it was rumoured that cost was an issue for Warwick Accommodation when considering the proposal, it is alleged that only £20 of the approximate £3,000 student rent bill is spent on waste management.

In fact, when speaking to RaW News last week, Nick Hillard promised that there was going to be some ‘exciting news’ with regard to recycling in the coming months.

When asked, he said ‘Yes, indeed’ to whether there would in-hall recycling, but he wouldn’t be drawn on a date.

However, he added that Warwick Accommodation had to incorporate sustainability into their aims and told people to ‘watch this space’.

It wasn’t a question of cost but a question of behavioural change, he said.

As for the university’s environmental record, Mr Hillard said that the university had saved 763 tonnes of carbon dioxide this year against the target of 800 tonnes as part of the carbon management scheme.

The Environmental policy of the University apparently contains targets that exceed the commitments of national legislation.

As for the university’s expansion, he didn’t believe that the aiming for carbon neutral buildings was right and that it was instead ‘greenwash’. Instead all buildings will be ‘BREEAM excellent’.

Nick Hillard also said that the university was providing funds for Go Green Week’s publicity, and was ‘delighted’ that they were able to assist. He hoped that the university would meet its environmental targets and said that he was there to ensure that it happens.

The university’s policy and achievements seems to be quite clear, however for the Union the water is much muggier. As the Union is a part of the university (though separate politically speaking in the words of Tom Callow), the Union finds it hard to separate the achievements that it has made.

The Union’s Environment Policy (674) has only just come into force last term after been changed by the Finance, Democracy and Governance Officer, Tom Callow and Environment Officer Asen Geshakov.

The Policy outlines hard lobbying on the university and NUSSL to help find more environmental friendly methods as well as mandating the Union itself to make its actions as green as possible.

However in the discussion hosted by RaW News, the Finance Officer was unable to come forward with any hard figures on the actual achievements of the Union in terms of its green objectives.

The Union’s Executive will soon be presented with a report from the Finance and Communications Officer which shall give an update on the progress (or lack there of) that has been made towards the targets set out by Policy 674.

As for the effect of Go Green Week, coordinator Hannah Smith said she thought it was a ‘success’ and was pleased at the array of speakers that managed to come.

The highest profile speaker was expected to be Michael Meacher MP, Labour maverick and former Environment Minister who had to pull out at the last minute owing to a three line whip on the Northern Rock nationalization in Parliament.

However, there were other eminent speakers, including a member of the country’s Monetary Policy Committee – Dr Andrew Sentence. Events ranged from a talk on ‘greenwash’ to the party on the piazza.