HAN is getting a little more sustainable, cleaner and more colourful again. As School of Engineering and Automotive, we are taking part in the pilot of reusable tea and coffee cups with the name ‘Billie’ on them.

Why this decision?

These are much better and finer than disposable paper cups (residual waste) and thus reduce waste at the same time. A €1 deposit is charged for a Billie Cup to encourage people to return the cups.

The Billie Cups have so far only been used in the restaurants on the HAN Campus and have already saved 19,000 disposable cups. In total, we use 2,000,000 disposable cups a year at HAN. This is a huge amount, which is why you will very soon (right after spring break) come across the Billie Cups at our Ruitenberglaan 29 teaching location, available at any of Eurest’s restaurants.

New central waste bins

At Ruitenberglaan 29 they are already there; during the spring break, new central waste separation units will be placed in all HAN buildings (so also at Ruitenberglaan 26) with:

• blue bins for paper
• orange bins for plastic and drinks packaging
• grey bins for residual waste

Individual grey waste bins removed

Furthermore, the loose grey waste bins in or near classrooms and workplaces will be removed. You then have to walk a little further to dispose of your waste. For some people, this takes some getting used to, but soon nobody finds it a problem.

Why is this being done?

The initiatives to improve waste separation are in line with HAN’s development into a sustainable university of applied sciences with a focus on Smart Clean and Social. Reducing the total amount of waste is the main challenge. Because we as HAN (students and staff) collect our waste separately and correctly, better recycling is possible. And by replacing all small waste bins with large units, we use far fewer waste bags.

In cooperation with Afval Goed Geregeld, we ensure even better waste disposal. Afval Goed Geregeld is a government initiative to encourage waste separation in schools. They take care of the collection and recycling of plastic and drinks cartons.

Deposit system

A deposit system will be organised for beverage containers (bottles and cans). Therefore, in addition to the 200 new waste separation units in the HAN buildings, there will also be special collection points for deposit bottles and cans. You can also choose to donate your deposit bottle to the Voedselbank Arnhem in the Petman.

Source and photography: HAN