Goal 12 - Responsible Consumption and Production
Ensure responsible production and sustainable consumption
Research
Reducing plastic packaging
The Plastic Packaging in Peoples’ Lives (PPiPL) project focuses on how plastic food packaging is embedded in consumers’ day-to-day lives. Working with stakeholders along the supply chain, they will provide valuable insights to increase collaboration and share understanding along the UK food plastic packaging supply chain in order to create a sense of shared responsibility and improved packaging options.
Teaching
Consumer Culture
Responsible consumption and sustainable behaviour is embedded into teaching modules across the university. For example, our Sociology degree has a module on Consumer Culture that looks at advertising and how this impacts consumption behaviour and shopping culture.
University Operations
Electric Waste
The University has worked closely with the City Council to manage waste on campus with electric trucks – heavily reducing carbon emissions. The trucks can collect up to 10 tonnes of waste at a time, and from just a single charge of electricity are capable of a full 10-hour shift, lifting around 1500 bins.
Student Engagement
Don’t Ditch It
Every year the Don’t Ditch It project collects more than 20 tonnes of unwanted items from students across campus and diverts them from landfill to be repurposed and resold in our ECOShop. Hosted by Green Lancaster and run by students, the shop sells a wide range of repurposed donations from the Don’t Ditch It project, including books, electrical items and bedding that were donated to be reused by others.