ACU produces many hundreds of tonnes of waste a year from its consumption of food and drink, paper, cardboard, electronics, and packaging of all kinds.

ACU recycles about 50% of its waste and sends the remainder to landfill.

The heaviest environmental impacts arise from the decomposition of waste that ACU sends to landfill.

ACU’s recyclable waste, such as paper, cardboard, electronics and packaging, is sent to recycling facilities for sorting and on-selling to manufacturers in Australia and abroad. Those manufacturers will turn the recycled material into new products.

In 2022 ACU introduced a food waste collection service in its staff workplaces. In 2023, ACU will extend this service to its campus cafes and to key student spaces. The university’s food waste is turned into compost for use on farms and in public parks and gardens. Every kilogram of food waste sent to compost instead of landfill avoids the emission of substantial amounts of methane, a greenhouse gas much more powerful than carbon dioxide.

ACU’s waste management approach is to prioritise the reduction of waste generation. This approach helped ACU to reduce its waste generation from 25 kilograms per staff and student in 2019, to just 14 kilograms per staff and student in 2022.

See what you can do to improve recycling rates at ACU