Student charity bag donations

Posted 19 July 2011

Story by Frank Williams, on work experience from Burton Borough School, Newport.

Students at Harper Adams University College have donated 24 bags of unwanted clothing and bric-a-brac to Cancer Research as part of the annual end of year recycling collection scheme.

Karen Hughes, Environment and Waste Management Officer, organiser of the scheme, encouraged the students to donate their unwanted but reusable items before leaving the University College in Shropshire for the summer.

Last week, Jamie Tinsley, Regional Officer for the charity, collected the bags from Karen and dropped off a new ‘Donation Station’ for future use on campus.

Karen, said: “I work with the Student Services and Domestic Services departments to promote the importance of recycling to students.

“At the end of the academic year we collect any unwanted possessions, bag them up and then donate them to a chosen charity.

“This is the third year we’ve done this and this year I chose to donate the items to Cancer Research because of my personal experiences with the charity.”

Other charities helped by previous donations from Harper Adams include the British Heart Foundation, Newport Cottage Care Centre and the Dogs Trust.

Karen added: “Charity shops are always very grateful for donations, and they are becoming a lot more popular, because people don’t always have the money to buy brand new items.

“This means that they constantly have a demand for donations and it is great that we can do our part to assist.”

“The annual clear out and recycling work that we do on campus with the students is aimed at raising awareness with them, but also at helping to reduce our impact on the environment. It’s important that we all stop throwing useful and reusable items away.”

Karen also recently introduced the Harper Adams ‘Freecycle’ scheme where staff can give away their reusable, unwanted possessions to another.

These are some of the many sustainability schemes in place at Harper Adams. To find out more visit www.harper-adams.ac.uk/sustainability