December 13, 2017, by Liz Cass

Student donations help save lives

Donations the weight of 24 elephants have been stopped going into landfill thanks to University of Nottingham students.

Contributing to the British Heart Foundation’s city-wide campaign the University has helped generate £253,008 worth of donations.

The Pack for Good campaign sees universities, local authorities and landlords work together to provide much-needed stock for BHF shops.

The University of Nottingham got involved in 2016, working alongside Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham City Council and UPP, in setting up donation banks and kerbside collections for students moving out of rented accommodation.

Donations have continued to grow steadily with 18,072 bags collected across the City throughout the year.

The donations make up the equivalent of 144.6 tonnes and have helped save 1,471,350kgs of CO2 greenhouse gas emissions according to the BHF report.

Melanie Futer, Manager for Off Campus Student Affairs, said: “This is the perfect opportunity for our students to be both charitable and environmentally friendly with their unwanted items. We promote the Pack for Good campaign as much as possible around term times in the hope that students take advantage of the scheme when moving.

“This is one of a number of measures we use to encourage students to respect and feel part of their local community. We are always looking to improve things – we recently installed two litter bins in Triumph Road, working with Nottingham City Council, to try and reduce waste around our Jubilee Campus.”

The BHF report said: “Every University that partners with us in our ‘Pack for Good’ campaign enables our shops to receive a regular supply of donations during the summer period, a time typically, when donations can be lower than in other seasons.

“Also, where we have built strong, long term relationships with our University partners leading to events, furniture donations, Fresher’s week or Green week events, we are able to extend the donations coming into our shops and in turn the funds raised towards our life-saving work.

“On behalf of everyone at the BHF we would like to thank you for your support. Your ongoing support and end of year campaign along with all the Universities across the UK, is making a real difference in the fight against heart disease.”

 

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