As we prepare ourselves for the spookiest time of year; making Halloween costumes, buying sweets for ‘trick or treaters’ and carving pumpkins, Robert Gordon University (RGU) has launched a fun food waste initiative.
RGU: ResLife, which supports students while they live at RGU accommodation and beyond, with Residence Assistants providing out-of-hours care and a Community team helping residents to integrate socially, has launched a pumpkin carving competition in a bid to encourage students to recycle their food waste.
Around 300 pumpkins have been divided out between each of RGU’s student accommodation sites, along with leaflets provided by Aberdeen City Council informing residents about food recycling.
Donny McCormick, ResLife Co-ordinator, said the aim of the initiative is to make students aware of the food recycling bins in as fun a way as possible.
He said: “We are encouraging people to use the food recycling bins in their accommodation by getting them involved in a fun pumpkin carving competition.
“Students can collect a pumpkin and a flameless candle from one of our sites, carve it and take a photo, post it to Facebook, recycle the food waste and the best pumpkin wins.
“At RGU: Reslife, we are committed to the development of communities within our accommodation sites this marks one of the many initiatives that we are involved in that make living in university accommodation more fun whilst also making residents aware of essential services and facilities.”
Aberdeen City Council Communities, Housing and Infrastructure Committee convener councillor Neil Cooney, said: “I am delighted that students at Robert Gordon University are focusing on recycling as well as having fun this Halloween. Recycling food is far better for the environment than throwing it away, as the food waste is turned into compost rather than sent to landfill.
“We have now installed food recycling bins at student halls of residence across Aberdeen so that students can easily recycle their food waste. This is a fantastic opportunity to spread the recycling message and I hope that the students will continue to make good use of the food recycling service."
To view some pumpkins, please visit the RGU: ResLife Facebook page at www.facebook.com/rgureslife