About the Client
Brighton MET College is one of the largest further education colleges on the South Coast, offering vocational courses, apprenticeships, and higher–education programmes to students across Brighton and the surrounding areas. Alongside its focus on education and career development, the college continues to strengthen its sustainability efforts through its partnership with Recorra.
With a busy city centre campus and thousands of students and staff on site each day, Brighton MET College has introduced a range of recycling services to improve recycling rates and take a more circular approach to waste management.
Our Client’s Challenge
Managing a diverse range of waste streams across campus is a key challenge, particularly when it comes to harder-to-recycle materials that fall outside standard recycling systems. Alongside this, maintaining consistent recycling access and engagement across a busy campus requires ongoing attention to ensure best practice is followed. These efforts are further shaped by the operational demands of a central Brighton location, which can add complexity to day-to-day planning and coordination.
Services Provided
Our Approach
Working closely with the college, Recorra implemented a tailored waste and recycling strategy that ensured frequently used materials are recycled as much as possible, providing dedicated bins with clear signage across campus.
Most notably, Brighton MET College introduced Recorra’s Circular Box service for flexible plastics, and more recently, stationery recycling. The Circular Box allows custom recycling for harder-to-recycle items not typically accepted in conventional collections. By providing a dedicated recycling stream for these niche materials, they are kept in the circular economy for longer.
Recorra also supports on-site engagement, hosting sustainability sessions to educate students on waste reduction and recycling best practice. These sessions, led by a specialist Sustainability Consultant, help build greater environmental awareness across campus and instil better habits in students.
Recorra also works with the college to manage the challenges that come with operating in central Brighton. The college’s bin store is located behind locked shutters, requiring close coordination with on-site teams to ensure access. Busy city centre traffic and nearby restricted transport zones also demand careful route planning and early collections.
To address this, multiple site contacts were established to maintain reliable access, with collection teams aiming to arrive earlier in the day to avoid congestion.
The Results
Brighton MET College has expanded the range of materials diverted from general waste while making recycling more accessible for students and staff, all without compromising on space or service. Circular Box collections have increased awareness of harder-to-recycle materials and strengthened the college’s commitment to practical sustainability.
Through improved operations, student engagement and circular initiatives, Brighton MET College continues to build a more responsible campus and set a strong example within the education sector.
