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Campus Living Labs initiative aims for a transformation
THE Irish Universities Association has launched Campus Living Labs, in partnership with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a project aimed at reducing waste and increasing recycling on IUA University campuses.
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This two-year initiative, will design and deliver behavioural and infrastructural interventions targeting consumption as well as the waste management habits of campus populations.
Funded by the National Waste Prevention Programme (NWPP), a Government of Ireland initiative, the project aims to prevent waste, improve waste segregation and increase recycling across university campuses.
Unique ecosystems
With over 162,000 students across eight campuses, Irish Universities are unique ecosystems with populations like that of a small town or village, making them ideal testbeds or living labs for trialling waste and recycling interventions.
With a focus on reducing food waste and eliminating certain single use plastics, the project will recommend and introduce best practice on waste and recycling to improve the overall sustainability of Irish campuses, moving Universities towards a circular economy.
The waste and recycling interventions introduced under Campus Living Labs will also assist the higher education sector in meeting wider national targets, especially under Ireland’s Climate Action Plan and the Waste Action Plan for a Circular Economy.
Multiple aims
The Campus Living Labs initiative is particularly aligned with several aims set out in the Waste Action Plan for a Circular Economy, including education to improve waste segregation, halving our food waste by 2030, improving recycling infrastructure, and banning certain single-use plastics in line with the Single Use Plastics Directive.
The project will: • Directly address & support the sustainable campus ambitions of
Ireland’s universities. • Link to the Sustainable
Development Goals for Ireland, particularly Goal 12 Responsible
Consumption and Production and
Goal 11 Sustainable Cities and
Communities. • Assist campuses deliver on current and future legislative requirements regarding waste management, including the following: • reducing the generation of waste, in particular waste that is not suitable for preparing for reuse or recycling. • increasing the segregation & recycling of waste (particularly food waste). • addressing UN Sustainable
Development Goal 12.3 to reduce by 50% per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels.