Report finds University of Northampton’s campus move prevented more than 800 tonnes of material going to waste

Material weighing the equivalent of more than 200 elephants was diverted from landfill when the University of Northampton relocated to a new campus, a report has revealed.

The University closed its Park Campus, in Kingsthorpe, and moved to its new town-centre Waterside Campus in summer 2018.

The relocation was a major logistical operation, and had the potential to generate a huge amount of waste, as buildings, fixtures and fittings at Park Campus were due to be removed to make way for a new housing development.

A specialist relocation firm, Harrow Green, was appointed by the University to ensure that as many resources as possible were reused or recycled, rather than sent to landfill.

According to the report, which you can read in full here:

• An impressive 819 metric tonnes of materials were recovered during the decommissioning of Park Campus. That’s enough to fill 114 bin lorries, and the equivalent weight of more than 200 medium-sized elephants. This saved a total of 2,233 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.
• Twenty per cent of the materials, including furniture and equipment, were kept for reuse by the University.
• Half of the recovered materials, worth £438,000, were gifted to local schools and charities. You can read more about the recipients on our website.
• 16 per cent of the recovered materials were recycled, while 11 per cent were sold.

Becky Bradshaw, the University’s Director of Estates & Campus Services, said: “The University is committed to environmental sustainability and our waste management strategy has always prioritised prevention, re-use and recycling. But the closure of Park Campus, to facilitate the relocation, gave us the opportunity to demonstrate this commitment on a much grander scale. Being able to help schools in the local community further enhanced delivery of our sustainability agenda and we’re delighted they, and many others, have benefited from the project.”

St Patrick’s Catholic Primary School, in Corby, was one of the schools to benefit from the relocation, receiving lockable storage units, a display case, chairs and desks.

Headteacher, Louise Blair, said: “We are extremely grateful to the University of Northampton for its very kind donation. With the current constraints on school finances, we would have otherwise struggled to do this. This donation was very well received and has enabled us to update some of our areas within the school.”