Reduce Waste – Leave Durham Tidy – Support Charity. These are the three slogans of our annual ‘Green Move Out’ campaign, which now enters its 18th year. Under this award-winning scheme, students unwanted belongings are collected and donated to local charities at the end of the academic year, as they move out of their accommodation.
Students living in University or private accommodation are encouraged to ‘Leave Durham Tidy’, by donating unwanted clothes, shoes, bedding, electrical items, pots and pans, crockery, books and non-perishable food. The scheme centres around distinctive purple bags, which are delivered to colleges, purpose-built student accommodation (PBSAs) and rented student properties in June, before students move out throughout June and July. Items collected are then reused, diverted or sold. Some are redistributed to incoming students in a re-sale event in the autumn, while some are used to help provide services delivered by charity partners or sold in local charity shops.
Typically, the scheme collects around 15-20 tonnes of material, and to date the total weight of material collected and diverted from general waste is approximately 200 tonnes. However, with the expansion of collections this year and with more students on campus post-Covid, this year could prove the biggest Green Move Out collection to date.
Green Move Out has been running in the city since 2005 and has grown significantly from its humble beginnings as a one-charity collection scheme within one college. This year, students in colleges and private accommodation will work with the University, Durham County Council, Durham Constabulary, and five local charities:
· County Durham Furniture Help Scheme (CDFHS)
· Durham Action on Single Housing (DASH),
· Red Supported Living,
· Veterans at Ease
· Scope.
The scheme has also expanded its reach yet again, to include a wider area and twice the number of student volunteers as in previous years, who will be involved in distributing the bags and helping to promote the initiative.
We are encouraging our students to take part in the Green Move Out by filling a purple bag with their unwanted belongings, and leaving it in their college bedroom, college collection point or outside their door for those living out, from 6 June. Students who do not receive a purple bag delivered to their place of residence, or those wanting additional bags can collect them from the Palantine Centre or their college reception.
Durham residents can also get involved with the scheme by donating larger items, such as furniture, for reuse by contacting CDFHS. Items must be in good, clean condition to be collected free of charge.
Durham County Council also operates a chargeable bulky waste collection service for household items to be disposed of.
· Visit the Green Move Out website
· Contact County Durham Furniture Help Scheme, Tel: 01388 721509
· Contact Durham County Council to arrange a collection of bulky waste items www.durham.gov.uk/bulkywaste Tel: 03000 260000.
/prod01/prodbucket01/media/durham-university/central-news-and-events-images/83431-1920X290.jpg)