Implementation of the practice of separate waste collection in the academic environment

Abstract

Separate waste collection (hereinafter referred to as RSO) is a set of practices for collecting and sorting waste, taking into account their origin and suitability for recycling or recycling, for subsequent transfer to recycling companies. In the Chelyabinsk Region, both regional and local authorities are actively implementing RSO practices in everyday life. The student community "Environmental Club of South Ural State Medical University", created at the university by activists, aimed to introduce the practice of CSR at the university and to conduct educational work with students. The article describes the experience of introducing separate waste collection practices at the Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Medical Education of the Ministry of Health through sequentially implemented projects: "Marathon of Batteries", "Ecolectory of YUGMU" and "Marathon of caps" of the student ecological club. To assess the effectiveness, the results of two waves of student surveys are presented – before the implementation of projects and the creation of infrastructure and after the implementation. According to the results of two waves of student surveys, in the two years since the beginning of the introduction of environmental projects into the academic environment, the proportion of students engaged in CSR has increased by 17% (from 12% in 2022 to 29% in 2024). According to both the study of retrospective experience and the analysis of similar cases, in order to implement the practices of separate waste collection in the academic environment of a single university, a combination of the following factors is necessary: an initiative community interested in the implementation of the project; the creation of infrastructure for the RSO and an information campaign to attract the attention of students.