Liverpool students moving out of digs donate tonnes of furniture and food to charities

Liverpool students moving out of their rental digs at the end of the academic year have donated tonnes of unwanted furnishings and food to charities locally.

The city council partnered with student unions at the University of Liverpool and LJMU for a Leave Liverpool Tidy campaign.

That included, for the first time, installing a shipping container based at Webster Road in Wavertree, right at the heart of the area where thousands of students live.

With tenancies coming to an end, they were encouraged to drop off any furniture items, clothing, electricals, books, or unopened food when they were packing up.

That meant it could be saved from being dumped on the street or going to landfill, and given a second life instead.

The container, which was open on seven dates over a five-week period, ended up being packed with a 100 bags of clothing as well as around 30 boxes of useable kitchen and household items.

The British Heart Foundation and Salvation Army collected the donations and made sure they were recycled properly and reused wherever possible. Food collected was donated to FareShare Merseyside.

86 skips were also put in place for local communities to use, including 58 targeted in popular student areas such as Smithdown, Arundel, Edge Hill, Kensington and Fairfield, which collected around 232 tonnes of waste.

As students came towards the end of their annual de-camp, both universities held Days of Action in support of the Leave Liverpool Tidy campaign.

In addition to the community skips there were drop-off donation points based on campuses, at ASDA Smithdown Road, the Webster Road container and Kensington Fields.

They brought in 147 bags of clothing, donated to the British Heart Foundation, as well as a large amount of household items including TV stands, shelving units, picture frames, photo frames, vases, books and leftover kitchenware: pans, crockery, cutlery, glassware and cookbooks.

Councillor Laura Robertson-Collins, Labour councillor for Arundel Ward, is one of the local councillors in the Smithdown Road area and Liverpool Council’s Cabinet Member responsible for Neighbourhoods and Streetscene services.

She praised the efforts and collaboration of everyone involved in Leave Liverpool Tidy.

Laura says: “Councillors and council staff have worked with Liverpool University Students Union over many years to try to reduce the amount of waste dumped on our streets as students leave the city having to clear their rented properties. 

“I am very pleased that this partnership has developed and now involves all relevant departments at the council, the two universities, housing providers and others. This year plans and communications were worked on for several months to avoid problems at the end of the academic year.

“The Leave Liverpool Tidy project means that despite the hundreds of properties being emptied across Liverpool and thousands of people all moving at the same time we can keep our streets as clean as possible. 

“Importantly we can help students to donate tonnes of furniture, clothing, food and household goods to charity for re-use and prevent this being sent to be incinerated.”

Find out more about the campaign here.

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