Information for Students in Private Accommodation

The Problem

Every year thousands of students move between houses or away from Leeds over the same couple of weeks at the end of June and start of July when housing contracts end. As a result of this big move, residential areas around the universities suffer from a massive amount of rubbish on the streets - this causes bad feeling between the student population and more permanent residents. The environment also suffers as a lot of useful stuff ends up in landfill sites.

Leave Leeds Tidy is here to help!

Leave Leeds Tidy will be providing information and advice to help you move house whilst reducing the impact on the local community and amount of useful items going to landfill. Use the checklist below, start packing and clearing early to avoid rushing, don't forget to recycle properly and Leave Leeds Tidy.

What you can do to help...

1. Start packing early! Avoid a mad rush as you are moving out by thinking about packing and clearing your house earlier. Stop lots of unnecessary rubbish being left behind and going to landfill, and get your full deposit back.


2. Get rid of bulky waste. If you have a sofa or fridge lurking at the bottom of your garden, and it doesn't have a home to go to, call Leeds City Council for a Bulky Waste Removal on 0113 222 4406. Remember to do this early to avoid items like this being left all over Leeds.


3. Make some cash. Community Action Leeds Met (CALM) will be holding Bargain Hunt, a table top sale, on Woodhouse Moor (Hyde Park) on Saturday 15th May so head down to sell some of those unwanted items you might have found lurking around your house, or head to find a hidden treasure. Contact J.Poyser@leedsmet.ac.uk for more information, and to register for a table.


4. Use your green bin. Put all clean tins and cans, non-confidential paper, magazines, card, aerosol cans, plastic bottles and bags in your green bin. Find out when your green bin is collected.


5. Take a trip to the bottle bank. Get all your housemates together and take all the glass at the bottom of the garden down to your nearest bottle bank. These are marked on the Changeover Map and their addresses can be found on the Services page.


6. Use the drop off point. Bring all of your dead batteries, old printer cartridges, clean tetrapak juice cartons and all the plastic bags you have been saving up all year, to the drop off point at Leeds University Union from Monday 10th May and we will recycle them properly for you.
   We will also be collecting old mobile phones at the drop off point; alternatively, you can do this yourself at www.leedsuniversityunion.envirostudents.com (doing it this way also gives a donation to the Volunteering and Community Office).


7. Shred confidential paperwork. Identity theft is a real problem that can be made worse during changeover when hundreds of people leave letters and other paperwork containing confidential information in their overflowing bins. Identity thieves find information by looking through all of the rubbish left behind every summer; stop it from happening this year by bringing anything containing your name, address or bank details to Leeds University Union reception, on the first floor by the photocopier to use a shredder, or to Leeds Met Students' Union from Monday 10th May.


8. Take out and bring your black bin in. Remember to put your bin out for collection and bring it back in after it has been emptied. If you leave it out you may be fined £75, it makes the streets look messy and increases the chances of someone going through your bin. Remember to use the right bin, paint your number on it and leave a note for your neighbours.
   If you are leaving Leeds before bin day then contact the Changeover Wardens to register your bin and they will put it out to be collected and put it back in.


9. Donate to Green Streets Green Streets, a student-led volunteering project, aims to reduce to amount of reusable items going to landfill. If you live in a collection zone, you will recieve some red collection bags through your letterbox with information on when collections will be taking place. Visit the Green Streets page for more information on the project, what you can leave for collection, when the collections are, and what you can do to help!

Good Luck and don’t forget LEAVE LEEDS TIDY!