Blog by Harriet Bickley, Research Associate

Plants given away at the event.

In September, the School of Health Sciences Environmental Sustainability group held its fourth annual Welcome Week Stall. As per the University’s guidance on sustainable giveaways at events, we kept to our tried and tested formula of giving away house plants, kitchen herb plants, surplus stationery and compost caddy bags.

We gave away over 100 house plants and pots of kitchen herbs, while advertising the health benefits of house plants and giving out flyers on the kitchen herb uses and benefits.

Other giveaways included new and used stationery collected from across the University over the past few months. Surplus stationery can also be passed on to the University’s award-winning Furniture Reuse team who do sterling work rehoming spare furniture, stationery and printer toners to students and staff. They are open noon-3pm on Wednesdays and Thursdays in the Simon Building basement.

Some of the stationery which the students didn’t take at the Welcome Week event has been passed on to staff to use at the University, by community groups staff are involved with such as Scouts groups, or for hobbies etc. We rehomed about twenty big boxes of stationery in total, saving it from landfill or incineration, and saving the University money in disposal costs. We estimate the stationery and plant giveaway saved students more than £1500, staff work budgets over £1000 and community groups over £100, which is good news for our environmental and local community social responsibility goals.

Over a hundred domestic compost caddy bags were given out to students and staff living in private accommodation, along with instructions for where to order Manchester council recycle bins, caddies and more caddy bags.

Posters displayed by the team.

Stall visitors were invited to download the recently updated Easy Eco for All guide which provides lots of practical tips on where to recycle a vast array of items on and off campus, plus green travel, waste reduction and ethical purchasing.

We advertised the ethical shopping, recycling and volunteering opportunities available at the student-run refill shop Want not Waste.  We also advertised various groups and amenities including student groups The Botany Society and The Tree Musketeers, the UoM Brunswick Park and Whitworth Park Tree Trails, the Schuster Building Living Wall, and The Firs Botanical Grounds. The Firs Botanical Grounds behind Owens Park, hosts the Manchester Food Partners: Commit to Community group and The Green Wellbeing Project, and staff can organise awaydays there.

Many thanks to the staff who made the Welcome Week event possible (Harriet Bickley, Sally Freeman, Judy Ormrod, Brad O’Donovan, Anisa Visram, Peter Taylor, Julie Butterworth, Emily Butterworth, Anu Thomas, Simon Peters, Jennifer Henthorne, Iwona Skorbilowicz, Gary Rowlinson, Lynda Rowlinson, Nancy Barnes, James Collins, Samantha Franklin, Momina Atique, Charlton Bell, Jimmy Burns, India Garry, Jackie Ward, Tracey Speake, Alex Prodan, Kate Moss, Daniel Shipman/SHS Student Hub, Parrs Wood Environmental Centre), who collectively provided plants, stationery, boxes, stall running, stationery sorting, logistics, muscle-power, advertising, costings, ideas, enthusiasm, space & time.

Thank you also to everyone (Rachel Webster, Patrick Osborn, Julia Viladoms Claverol, Ximena Soto Rodriguez, Mercede Lee, Debbie Smith, Diana Kurkul, Kylie Nixon, Maria Jose, Harmesh Aojula, Di Bell, Kaye Williams, Lisa Riste) who donated plant pots to our SHS ES group. Some were used at our community festival ‘Trees for Life’ stall (write-up and photos here), others at our Welcome Week event.

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