When I was a kid, I was a huge Blue Peter fan – I even own a Blue Peter badge, thanks to a runner’s up prize to design a stamp when I was 10. So it’s understandable that I’d grow up with a ‘here’s one I made earlier!’ attitude.

When Julia Robinson, Environmental Co-ordinator for Robinson Library, suggested a Recyclometer, I jumped at the chance to help create it. Just like the Blue Peter fund-raising thermometers, a recyclometer would be a great way to visually show people the recycling rate for their building.

After looking into making a home-made version, it was decided that, even with a Blue Peter badge, the guys at Character Signs ( http://www.characterssigns.com/index.php ) could do a better job of bringing my vision to life.

A large, heavy parcel arrived several weeks later, and no time was wasted in ripping the masses of packaging off (all recycled, obviously). Despite the fact it took over an hour to unpack, once put together, the recyclometer was a thing of beauty – even better than my version using double sided tape and loo roll could have looked! The green shiny backing, the bright white lettering, the clear plastic tube…. have we finally made recycling cool?

The aim of the recyclometer is to publicise to all building users that the University is considering sustainability, and to let everyone know how good they are at recycling. It also adds in an element of competition, complimenting the Recycling League Table, to bring out the primal urge to meet the neighbouring building’s recycling rate. And hey, if that means we recycle more, then we welcome that urge.

So how does it work, I hear you ask? Each building has a recycling rate (that’s the percentage of all the waste created that is recycled). The recyclometer displays that rate using the clear plastic tube; the tube is filled with materials (re-used waste of course – remember the waste hierarchy?!) to match the percentage of the recycling rate. As each building has a different recycling rate, we needed the recyclometer to be able to display any percentage.

The recyclometer has just started its grand tour of campus, stopping off at each building over the coming months, starting with the Robinson Library. Look out for it in your building.

And FYI; it was the earth in a greenhouse (representing global warming) that was my fantastic entry in the stamp design competition – I was destined to work in sustainability!

By Kay Gregory, EC Support Officer, Aged 26 and a half.

We launched a lug a mug campaign last week. Blog post to follow. But this is the first public sighting of one in use!! Woop.

A little while ago we had a great deal of polystyrene to dispose of. Big massive polystyrene blocks.

We were going to send it off for recycling but via a contact in fine art we heard of an artists who was on the look out for “Big massive polystyrene blocks.”

8 trips by our porters- pulling out all of the stops- managed to get the material over to Theodore Harper-Davis on new bridge street, new bridge SPACE. The new gallery just opposite the new city libary.

Theodore sent us some up date pictures. I do not know where he is going with this but it looks very interesting. More images to follow soon!

Degree: Environmental Science
Stage: 2
Placement role: Environmental Management Assistant

What did you expect to get out of your placement?
-As my placement role is an environmental management assistant, I expect to have a better understanding of how the environmental management system works in a big organisation like Newcastle University. What I’ve principally done before was a lot to do with agriculture, coming from a farm and having that sort of background, so I wanted to broaden my horizons and add another string to my bow. An Environmental Management System affects everyone and everybody has to be on board for it to work, it involves a lot of communication between different departments and hopefully everyone can work together.

What about your future career? Do you think this placement will benefit you?
-Yes I hope so. Personally I want to do something involving agriculture in the environment so this placement really benefits me because so far I have been doing things such as an environmental audit which you can apply to agriculture as well, like a pollution audit. If I don’t do something in agriculture then I want to do work for big organisation, like this. I suppose any experience is better than no experience.

What have you been working on so far?
-Well the first few weeks I was just getting an introduction to the environmental management system so I was just looking through different documents to gain an understanding of how everything worked. Over the last couple of weeks, I and two of the other placement students, Hannah Howarth and Hannah Wright, did an environmental audit of the university which checked bin storage, chemical storage, any elements of fly tipping. We then had to outline where all the bins and skips where so that we could put it on to a Google map and anyone across the system can look at it. This is one of the requirements for a stage in EcoCampus.

What exactly is EcoCampus?
-EcoCampus is an Environmental Management System and award scheme for the higher education sector, like universities.The scheme allows universities to be recognised for addressing key issues of environmental sustainability. The aims of the EcoCampus Scheme are to encourage, reward and provide tools to assist institutions in moving towards environmental sustainability through good operational and management practice.

Where are you going to put the map once it is finished? Can students access it?
-I think it’s more for academics to look through and for people across the different sectors in the university. For example one of the things we did was “Grot Spots” which is any instances where there is fly tipping so the people around the university can fill out a grot spot form and it then can be put on to the Google map and marked with a red marker and once it has been dealt with the marker will turn green. That’s one of the things they are talking about doing. We put some of the grot spots me, Hannah and Hannah found on the map but in the future it will be open to anyone and there will be an online form to fill in.

What do you think of it so far?
-Really interesting! I wasn’t sure what I would be doing when I first turned up but it’s a lot better than I first expected. Time flies when you’re here. It really feels like I achieved something when I’m working.

Have you faced any challenges since starting your placement?
-There is a lot to get your head around in terms of the legal requirements, that is what I am actually going to be doing today, looking at the legal register and all the legalisation attached to it. To complete one of the stages of EcoCampus you have to complete a lot of sub-sections so there is a lot to look through and to get to grips with. We just completed the Silver stage of EcoCampus in October and we are now working towards the Gold stage which will be hopefully achieved in April.

What do you think of the atmosphere in the Sustainability Team office?
-It’s really friendly and everyone is really nice. Everyone is really busy but I feel that I fit in well.

What future work will you be doing on your placement?
-Well because it is a work in progress I’m not sure what exactly what jobs I will be carrying out in the future but I look forward to the challenge.

Would you recommend other students take a placement as part of their degree, either with the Sustainability team or another company?
-I definitely think they should do it within the university because you get a better understanding of how the university works and how much work goes in behind the scenes. Before this placement I never knew the Sustainability Team existed, we had an idea that there were systems in place to ensure that everything works properly but I didn’t understand the amount of work that goes in, for example with control of energy use, there is someone there checking the heating all the time. It is really useful to do a placement and it also means that if you do it as part of your degree, you don’t have to do it during the summer.

Lisa, Student Engagement Intern