Engagement

Giving unwanted items a second life

Queen Mary’s annual Reuse Scheme collects useful items that students and staff no longer need and makes them available to others rather than sending them into the waste stream. Items include kitchen equipment, bedding, stationery, electronics and other everyday household goods. Since 2022, more than 2,000 students have accessed second-hand items through the scheme, with more than 400 students taking part in September 2024 alone. Alongside reducing waste, the scheme helps students access everyday essentials while encouraging reuse rather than buying new items.

Learning what happens to our recycling

Queen Mary uses practical activities to help students and staff understand what happens to waste after it leaves campus. During Climate Action Week 2024/25, participants visited Bywaters’ Materials Recovery Facility to see how mixed recycling is separated into different material streams for further processing. Seeing the process first-hand helps participants understand why waste needs to be separated correctly, how contamination affects recycling, and how individual disposal choices influence whether materials can be recovered and reused.

Learning skills that help things last longer

Climate Action Week 2025 also gave students and staff practical ways to reduce consumption. More than 20 participants joined a clothes-repair workshop, learning practical skills that can help extend the life of clothing rather than replacing it. By helping people repair and continue using existing clothes, the workshop connected everyday skills with waste prevention, reuse and more responsible consumption.