Alan Peddie

Department for Social Responsibility and Sustainability

Waste Audits – Café

In conjunction with the Waste Department and student volunteers, we performed 5 audits of waste in the café outlets around the University in late 2015. The idea was to gauge the success of each stream (general waste, dry mixed recycling and food) from the front of house during a busy time for each café.

It should be noted not all cafes gave us the waste we requested. The ECCI, Roger Land, Levels, The Business School, KB Library, Dolly’s and the ECA either gave us back of house bins or didn’t give us a sample of each stream.

Summary of each stream

For the past two years the audits has shown the success of the food bins weight % sit at around the 97% mark. This year the figure was markedly lower. It should be noted that we got less than half the amount of food to audit this year so perhaps the sample size effected the totals. It was still the most successful of all the waste streams.

Food (kg) / Weight (%) / Volume (%)
FOOD / 17770 / 71.18 / 82.71
DMR / 100 / .60 / .14
General Waste / 4666 / 28.22 / 17.14
Totals / 35181 / 100.00 / 100.00

General Waste was similar to last year’s audits sitting at the 75% mark in terms of weight %. It should be noted that there were a decent number of bags were completely contaminated with coffee or coffee ground. Coffee grounds of course should go in the food bins.

General Waste (kg) / Weight (%) / Volume (%)
FOOD / 9164 / 12.54 / 4.41
DMR / 8565 / 11.72 / 22.95
General Waste / 55367 / 75.75 / 65.50
Totals / 80814 / 100.00 / 100.00

Similar to previous audits Dry Mixed Recycling was the weakest stream as shown below with the correct percentage of weight being only around 45%. The same problems persist from the last round of audits with plenty of coffee cups found in the stream. Not only are they unrecyclable but they tend to still have coffee, which further contaminated what could have been considered as DMR had it not been covered in coffee. There were also lots of back of house bins which contained the wrong materials and plenty of coffee grounds, thus contaminating whole bags. This should be easily fixed by putting coffee grounds in the food bin which are available at each café.

DMR (kg) / Weight (%) / Volume (%)
FOOD / 1412 / 5.79 / .35
DMR / 11149 / 45.69 / 67.02
General Waste / 11838 / 48.52 / 32.63
Totals / 41177 / 100.00 / 100.00

Recommendations

Similar to last year the recommendations would be that café staff have either some kind of refresher training or inductions are instituted for new staff. Most of the bins that were completely contaminated in every stream were clearly back of house bins.

If specific training couldn’t be delivered for café staff then opening up the existing training for Waste and Recycling Coordinators would be a great way to engage with them.

Coffee cups continue to be very problematic in that they cannot be recycled, in addition to which they easily contaminate the rest of the stream as coffee simply goes everywhere in a DMR bag. There were more coffee cups in this stream than in general waste, where they are supposed to be put.

Investigating further the idea of a coffee cup bin or compostable coffee cups would be germane.

Below are data breakdowns for each café.

Mary Bruck
General Waste (kg) / Weight (%) / Volume (%)
FOOD / 268 / 8.44 / 4.00
DMR / 408 / 12.85 / 39.33
General Waste / 2498 / 78.70 / 56.67
Totals / 3174 / 100.00 / 100.00
DMR (kg) / Weight (%) / Volume (%)
FOOD / 0 / 0.00 / 0.00
DMR / 631 / 89.00 / 94.50
General Waste / 78 / 11.00 / 5.50
Totals / 709 / 100.00 / 100.00
Food (kg) / Weight (%) / Volume (%)
FOOD / 0 / 0.00 / 0.00
DMR / 0 / 0.00 / 0.00
General Waste / 3615 / 100.00 / 100.00
Totals / 3615 / 100.00 / 100.00
KB Library
General Waste (g) / Weight (%) / Volume (%)
FOOD / 784 / 21.74 / 9.00
DMR / 815 / 22.59 / 18.00
General Waste / 2008 / 55.67 / 73.00
Totals / 3607 / 100.00 / 100.00
DMR (g) / Weight (%) / Volume (%)
FOOD / 0 / 0.00 / 0.00
DMR / 432 / 62.52 / 80.00
General Waste / 259 / 37.48 / 20.00
Totals / 691 / 100.00 / 100.00
Food (kg) / Weight (%) / Volume (%)
FOOD / 0 / 0.00 / 0.00
DMR / 0 / 0.00 / 0.00
General Waste / 0 / 0.00 / 0.00
Totals / 0 / 0.00 / 0.00
DHT
General Waste (g) / Weight (%) / Volume (%)
FOOD / 75 / 3.27 / 3.00
DMR / 136 / 5.94 / 32.00
General Waste / 2080 / 90.79 / 65.00
Totals / 2291 / 100.00 / 100.00
DMR (g) / Weight (%) / Volume (%)
FOOD / 0 / 0.00 / 0.00
DMR / 302 / 31.20 / 72.50
General Waste / 666 / 68.80 / 27.50
Totals / 968 / 100.00 / 100.00
Food (g) / Weight (%) / Volume (%)
FOOD / 121 / 100.00 / 100.00
DMR / 0 / 0.00 / 0.00
General Waste / 0 / 0.00 / 0.00
Totals / 121 / 100.00 / 100.00
Eng Inn
General Waste (g) / Weight (%) / Volume (%)
FOOD / 1100 / 48.25 / 5.00
DMR / 244 / 10.70 / 15.00
General Waste / 936 / 41.05 / 80.00
Totals / 2280 / 100.00 / 100.00
DMR (g) / Weight (%) / Volume (%)
FOOD / 0 / 0.00 / 0.00
DMR / 2399 / 96.31 / 92.50
General Waste / 92 / 3.69 / 7.50
Totals / 2491 / 100.00 / 100.00
Food (g) / Weight (%) / Volume (%)
FOOD / 3234 / 100.00 / 100.00
DMR / 0 / 0.00 / 0.00
General Waste / 0 / 0.00 / 0.00
Totals / 3234 / 100.00 / 100.00
Upstairs
General Waste (g) / Weight (%) / Volume (%)
FOOD / 280 / 4.66 / 0.50
DMR / 175 / 2.92 / 2.00
General Waste / 5548 / 92.42 / 97.50
Totals / 6003 / 100.00 / 100.00
DMR (g) / Weight (%) / Volume (%)
FOOD / 0 / 0.00 / 0.00
DMR / 236 / 8.80 / 46.50
General Waste / 2447 / 91.20 / 53.50
Totals / 2683 / 100.00 / 100.00
Food (g) / Weight (%) / Volume (%)
FOOD / 4076 / 83.49 / 90.00
DMR / 0 / 0.00 / 0.00
General Waste / 806 / 16.51 / 10.00
Totals / 4882 / 100.00 / 100.00

Drum

General Waste (g) / Weight (%) / Volume (%)
FOOD / 156 / 15.18 / 5.00
DMR / 78 / 7.59 / 80.00
General Waste / 794 / 77.24 / 15.00
Totals / 1028 / 100.00 / 100.00
Dollys
General Waste (g) / Weight (%) / Volume (%)
FOOD / 1678 / 47.03 / 5.20
DMR / 968 / 27.13 / 10.40
General Waste / 922 / 25.84 / 84.40
Totals / 3568 / 100.00 / 100.00
DMR (g) / Weight (%) / Volume (%)
FOOD / 0 / 0.00 / 0.20
DMR / 919 / 61.43 / 79.80
General Waste / 577 / 38.57 / 20.00
Totals / 1496 / 100.00 / 100.00

The View

General Waste (g) / Weight (%) / Volume (%)
FOOD / 923 / 18.42 / 3.00
DMR / 599 / 11.96 / 4.00
General Waste / 3488 / 69.62 / 93.00
Totals / 5010 / 100.00 / 100.00
DMR (g) / Weight (%) / Volume (%)
FOOD / 0 / 0.00 / 0.00
DMR / 936 / 66.67 / 73.80
General Waste / 468 / 33.33 / 26.20
Totals / 1404 / 100.00 / 100.00
Food (g) / Weight (%) / Volume (%)
FOOD / 1889 / 100.00 / 100.00
DMR / 0 / 0.00 / 0.00
General Waste / 0 / 0.00 / 0.00
Totals / 1889 / 100.00 / 100.00
ECA
General Waste (g) / Weight (%) / Volume (%)
FOOD / 0 / 0.00 / 0.00
DMR / 0 / 0.00 / 0.00
General Waste / 2154 / 100.00 / 0.00
Totals / 2154 / 100.00 / 0.00
Business School
General Waste (g) / Weight (%) / Volume (%)
FOOD / 147 / 1.85 / 1.00
DMR / 690 / 8.68 / 24.00
General Waste / 7112 / 89.47 / 75.00
Totals / 7949 / 100.00 / 100.00
DMR (g) / Weight (%) / Volume (%)
FOOD / 124 / 1.95 / 1.67
DMR / 1761 / 27.67 / 41.67
General Waste / 4479 / 70.38 / 56.67
Totals / 6364 / 100.00 / 100.00
Main Library
General Waste (g) / Weight (%) / Volume (%)
FOOD / 1928 / 9.95 / 9.00
DMR / 2207 / 11.39 / 33.00
General Waste / 15247 / 78.67 / 58.00
Totals / 19382 / 100.00 / 100.00
DMR (g) / Weight (%) / Volume (%)
FOOD / 0 / 0.00 / 0.00
DMR / 425 / 63.43 / 50.00
General Waste / 245 / 36.57 / 50.00
Totals / 670 / 100.00 / 100.00
Food (g) / Weight (%) / Volume (%)
FOOD / 2355 / 87.22 / 89.00
DMR / 100 / 3.70 / 1.00
General Waste / 245 / 9.07 / 10.00
Totals / 2700 / 100.00 / 100.00
Appleton Tower
General Waste (g) / Weight (%) / Volume (%)
FOOD / 1417 / 11.03 / 9.00
DMR / 1475 / 11.48 / 14.00
General Waste / 9953 / 77.49 / 77.00
Totals / 12845 / 100.00 / 100.00
DMR (g) / Weight (%) / Volume (%)
FOOD / 69 / 1.44 / 2.33
DMR / 2937 / 61.28 / 78.00
General Waste / 1787 / 37.28 / 19.67
Totals / 4793 / 100.00 / 100.00
Rogerland
General Waste (g) / Weight (%) / Volume (%)
FOOD / 188 / 13.38 / 3.00
DMR / 510 / 36.30 / 9.50
General Waste / 707 / 50.32 / 87.50
Totals / 1405 / 100.00 / 100.00
DMR (g) / Weight (%) / Volume (%)
FOOD / 0 / 0.00 / 0.00
DMR / 146 / 93.59 / 95.00
General Waste / 10 / 6.41 / 5.00
Totals / 156 / 100.00 / 100.00
Food (g) / Weight (%) / Volume (%)
FOOD / 95 / 100.00 / 100.00
DMR / 0 / 0.00 / 0.00
General Waste / 0 / 0.00 / 0.00
Totals / 95 / 100.00 / 100.00
Levels
General Waste (g) / Weight (%) / Volume (%)
FOOD / 220 / 9.17 / 5.00
DMR / 260 / 10.83 / 40.00
General Waste / 1920 / 80.00 / 55.00
Totals / 2400 / 100.00 / 100.00
DMR (g) / Weight (%) / Volume (%)
FOOD / 1219 / 61.75 / 0.00
DMR / 25 / 1.27 / 0.00
General Waste / 730 / 36.98 / 100.00
Totals / 1974 / 100.00 / 100.00
ECCI
General Waste (g) / Weight (%) / Volume (%)
FOOD / 25 / 2.88 / 0.25
DMR / 0 / 0.00 / 0.00
General Waste / 844 / 97.12 / 99.75
Totals / 869 / 100.00 / 100.00
DMR (g) / Weight (%) / Volume (%)
FOOD / 20 / 1.58 / 0.67
DMR / 1219 / 96.44 / 82.00
General Waste / 25 / 1.98 / 17.33
Totals / 1264 / 100.00 / 100.00