Our Campaigns & Initiatives 

We run a variety of campaigns and projects every year to help reduce our waste footprint, whether it’s an education project, or something more practical, there are lots of things that all our staff and students can get involved with to help reduce waste. 

Green Move Out

What is Green Move Out?

The Green Move Out scheme started out in just one college in 2005. It has run every year since, growing to include all colleges and students living out in the wider community.

We deliver a purple bag to each of our students and ask they fill it unwanted or unused items. These items are then sorted and donated to local charities.

Which items can be donated?

Please fill your purple bag with:

• Clean clothing
• Paired shoes
• Books
• Clean, working electrical items
• Clean pots and pans
• Clean crockery and cutlery (no sharp knives)
• Shelf stable, un-opened food items (pasta, rice, tins etc.)

You can find more information on the Green Move Out here.

Reuseable Coffee Cups

In September of 2024, we launched a new reusable coffee cup scheme. Our ambition is to eliminate the use of difficult to recycle disposable coffee cups and move to a waste free future. We understand that it’s going to take time, so for now, we have partnered with eCups to provide a sustainable solution.  

Simply pay £5 for a Durham University coffee cup (it even comes with a hot drink!) and bring to your favourite café. We have also introduced a 25p disposable coffee cup surcharge if you forget to bring your own cup to help us improve the service and one day eliminate disposable coffee cups completely. 

Plastics Reduction 

Through our Single Use Plastics working group, we are always looking for novel ways to minimise plastic consumption in line with our Waste Strategy’s reduction objectives. We were recently a finalist in the 2024 Green Gown awards for Creating Impact, with a project which reduced the number of plastics we were using with cleaning products in use across the university.

You can read more bout that here.