Kitchen bric-a-brac sort out

Cardiff’s student population responded in style to the call to Get It Out for Cardiff this year. The scheme to collect and re-use unwanted items that previously would’ve been destined for the streets or landfill has been a resounding success with over 7.5 tonnes of items collected at halls of residence and the Students Union. Read the full story here


Kitchen bric-a-brac such as utensils and cutlery collected for resale at the Union this September was sorted out today. Nick Matthew (Finance & Commercial Officer), Chris Davies (Welfare and Communications), Alistair McGuffie, Lucy Prisk and Kieran McCann (Student Liaison Officer) went through the donations arranging the kitchen equipment into various sections such as frying pans, saucepans large and small, plates, cups, glassware, cutlery and various other categories.

The sort out highlighted the quality and quantity of kitchen equipment that was donated and makes for extremely promising re-sales. The three re-sales will take place at Cardiff Student Union; 23rd September and 7th of October (10am onwards in Solus) and the 17th September at UWIC llandaff campus

All are welcome to come along and pick up a bargain, any money raised will be donated to charity. So please spread the word that you don’t need to arrive in Cardiff with any new kitchen equipment it will all be available at heavily reduced prices in the two sales.

The space needed to store all these items was considerable but Cardiff Self Storage kindly stepped into the breach and stored all the items.

Get it Out scoops Green Apple Award

I am very pleased to announce that the Keep Cardiff Tidy partnership that includes cardiffdigs.co.uk have scooped a Green Apple Environment Award in recognition of their on-going contribution to helping the environment through the Get It Out For Cardiff Campaign

• The Get It Out For Cardiff Campaign

Now in its seventh year, this is a Cardiff Council and Keep Cardiff Tidy initiative in association with Cardiff University, UWIC and Glamorgan University which encourages students to clear out their rubbish at the end of the academic year. The aim is to re-use and recycle as much of it as possible.

You can read about the 7.5 tonnes of re-usable material donation success here

The Green Apple Environment Awards were launched in 1994 by The Green Organisation, an independent, non-political, non-activist, non-profit making environment group dedicated to recognising, rewarding and promoting environmental best practice around the world. Now in their 18th year, it is well established as one of the major environmental recognition schemes, both in the UK and internationally.

The waste management team and Kieran McCann (cardiffdigs.co.uk/Student Liaison Officer) is to be presented with their Green Apple Award trophy at the House of Commons

www.thegreenorganisation/info

Get It Out For Cardiff 2011 a hit for students and the city

Cardiff’s student population has responded in style to the call to Get It Out for Cardiff this year. The scheme to collect and re-use unwanted items that previously would’ve been destined for the streets or landfill has been a resounding success with over 7.5 tonnes of items collected at halls of residence and the Students Union.

The re-usable items collected were:

Electricals - 500kg

Books - 430kg

Food – 500kg

Bric a Brac/kitchen utensils - 950kg

Textiles – 5250kg

With some halls taking collections through until September these impressive figures are likely to increase still further.

The following charities will benefits from the variety of items collected:

-British Heart Foundation: Small electrical items such as kettles, toasters, printers, mobile phones, irons etc

-Fareshare: In date, un-opened foods (not fresh) eg. tins, packets etc

-Barnardos: Clothes, belts, shoes and bags.

-Media Bank: Books including textbooks, DVDs, CDs and tapes

-Kitchen bric-a-brac such as utensils and cutlery is being collected by cardiffdigs and RAG for resale at Student Unions this September

The dates for the resale are: 23rd September and 7th of October in Cardiff Student Union 10am onwards and one at UWIC llandaff (17th September) all welcome to come along and pick up a bargain, any money raised will be donated to charity

The space needed to store all these items was considerable but Cardiff Self Storage kindly stepped into the breach and stored all the items collected for free.

Extra waste collections

The scheme also included extra waste collections in Cathays, Roath and Gabalfa over 3 weekends in June with the good news continuing as the amount collected was reduced from 225 tonnes last year to 211 tonnes. The recycling rate also improved from 28% to 31%.

Executive Member for Environment, Cllr Margaret Jones, said, “Once again, the Get it Out for Cardiff team has excelled in diverting items that might have been thrown away and potentially cause a mess on the streets. To have collected over 7 tonnes of items that can be reused is an excellent achievement with the huge added bonus of charities benefitting too. The extra collections worked well too so congratulations must go out to everyone involved. It just goes to show what can be achieved when everyone works together, this is a model for partnership working.”

Student Liaison Officer, Kieran McCann said, “What an incredible achievement, thanks to some great partnership working we have managed to divert over 7 tonnes of material from landfill, collected items that can be re-used and ultimately helped a number of worthwhile charities raise valuable funds. Thank you to all the students who donated their items and to all KCT partners and stakeholders who have assisted to make this ‘tonnes’ of success.”