Students urged to donate – not dump – unwanted items

Students moving out of their accommodation for the summer are being urged to donate their unwanted belongings instead of binning them.

Fifteen bright red donation bins have been installed temporarily in Bath near student housing so that items can easily be dropped off.

Last year, these bins prevented 32.7 tonnes of goods from going to landfill and raised more than £60,000 for the British Heart Foundation, according to Bath & North East Somerset Council, which runs the scheme with a student community group.

Benji Orford Thompson, University of Bath student union community officer, said the "Pack for Good" scheme was a "great way to give back".

Council leader Kevin Guy said the scheme, which is run with the Student Community Partnership, was in its tenth year.

He said it is expected to have raised £1m in its lifetime by the end of this year.

Last year's donations included items such as clothing and shoes, utensils, books, DVDs and CDs.

Volunteers and officers have been knocking on thousands of doors around the city giving recycling advice to students packing up at the end of term.

Ghika Savva, SCP manager, said: "When students are packing up they've got so many things that they can't take with them that they'd like to donate and these [donation bins] provide a way of doing that.

"We'll take anything you can sell in a charity shop."

Mr Thompson added that the bins were "very easy to see".

"There's a lot of waste and a lot of things you don't know what to do with," he said.

"This is a great way to give back and not just discard to a landfill."

Councillor Tim Ball said the campaign "supports the council's drive to ensure more unwanted items are reused and not needlessly wasted".

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