Information for Local Community Residents

The Problem

Every year when thousands of student households move between properties or away from Leeds over the same couple of weeks during the summer, residential areas around the universities suffer from a massive amount of rubbish and chaos on the streets. This contributes to bad feeling between the student population and more permanent residents. The environment also suffers as a vast quantity of useful stuff ends up in landfill sites.

Factors which add to the problem

• Student households pack at the last minute so all rubbish is put out onto the streets at the same time.
• Scavengers go through bins and bags of rubbish for items to sell or for personal information i.e. on bills, bank statements etc.
• Housing contracts end at the same time so the majority of students move over the same 4 to 5 days.

Leave Leeds Tidy is here to help!

Leave Leeds Tidy aim is to provide information and advice to students and other residents in the community about how reduce the impact of student changeover on areas where students live, whilst also reducing the amount of useful items going to landfill.

Tell us what you think!
We want to know what you think about the Leeds Leave Tidy and the Green Streets project. Do you think that they have been successful? Have they helped with the problems around the streets of Leeds? Is there anything we could do differently next year?
Please take three minutes to take part in our short online survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CTP6GPD.

What the Leave Leeds Tidy project will be doing...

Communicating with students, landlords and the community

We will be distributing leaflets to all homes in the shaded area of the Changeover Map, with a checklist of things that students can do to make sure help Leave Leeds Tidy. We will also be in contact with students in many other ways through the universities as well as in the community, encouraging them to use recycling and waste services that are available to them early.

Encouraging reduce and recycle

We are also providing a collection service from Green Streets, a student volunteer-led project, that collects unwanted reusable items that are then sorted and redistributed in free shops and to local charities. Take a look at the Green Streets page for information on how you can leave your unwanted reusable items for collection, and stop reusable items going to landfill.

Being out in neighborhoods

The Changeover Wardens will be back this year, from mid June to early July, speaking to students and other residents in the community as people are packing and moving out. They will be on hand with advice for students and other residents in the community – let them know any thoughts you have about the project if you see them about.

What the Leave Leeds Tidy partnership will be doing...

Changeover Wardens

These are students who live in the area and have been recruited to speak to their fellow students, as they are moving in and out of their homes, about what they can do to leave Leeds tidy. They will be equipped with information about services that students can use, as well as advice on any problems or questions they might have. They will also be on hand to answer the questions of any other residents living in these areas and can pass on any information or enquiries you might have regarding the project, so do speak to them if you see them around.

I (heart) Hyde Park litter picks

Leeds University Union’s I love Hyde Park campaign will be organising litter picks in and around Woodhouse Moor (Hyde Park) in the next few months on days when the area gets messy.

Increasing the areas covered by Green Streets

After a tremendous year last year, and evaluating the areas they visited, Green Streets will be in more student occupied areas this summer.

Free Shops in the Community

Green Streets are running free shops in the community as well as on campus so more people can benefit. Visit the Green Streets page for details of when and where these are.

Evaluation

We want to know what you think about the Leave Leeds Tidy project and whether you are seeing improvements in the local community, during student changeover. Let us know what you think by emailing leaveleedstidy@luu.leeds.ac.uk or calling the Leave Leeds Tidy team on 0113 380 1329.

Your Comments and Questions

If you have any comments, thoughts or questions about what the Leave Leeds Tidy team will be doing, please email us at leaveleedstidy@luu.leeds.ac.uk.

What you can do to help...

1. Leave your unwanted reusable items with Green Streets on collection day.


2. Come to a free shop and take home items


3. Come to the Bargain Hunt, a tabletop sale at Hyde Park on Saturday 15th May. This project is organised by CALM. Contact Jenine to book a table if you have stuff to sell at email: J.Poyser@leedsmet.ac.uk


4. Volunteer to help Green Streets - There are loads of opportunities from driving a van, setting up a free shop to creating reusable fashion. Email volunteering@luu.leeds.ac.uk to find out more.


5. Look after your bins - Put your house number on your bin and make sure to put them out the night before and bring them in the day after to keep the streets tidy. If you don’t know what day is bin day in your area check out at www.leaveleedstidy.com/bincollectionday.


6. Be a community contact for one of our teams of Changeover Wardens - The Changeover Wardens would benefit from local knowledge. If you live in one of the changeover areas and would like to help please contact us at tel: 0113 380 1329 and leave your name, street name, and phone number and we’ll be in touch.

More information from our partners

Leave Leeds Tidy is a partnership which is coordinated by Leeds University Union’s Volunteering and Community office. Other partners are the University of Leeds, Leeds Met University Students' Union, UNIPOL, Leeds City Council and Hyde Park Neighbourhood Policing team.
This is a massive project and we’re not going to kid you by saying changeover will pass by without you noticing. However, we are trying our best to make improvements. Here’s some information from some of our partners about what else will be happening during changeover:

Bin crews and tidying messy streets

Bin crews (Streetscene) may not be able to come and clear every messy street that's reported immediately, but they do have a system in place to ensure that the whole area is cleared regularly and no street is left in a mess for more than eight days.
Bin crews will clear streets on the usual bin collection day. Extra crews have been employed over and above this to manage the volumes of waste left out.
If Streetscene were to react to every report of a messy street most of the working day would be wasted driving from one area to the next which would be less cost effective than this system. This way, streets which haven't been reported, but are still a problem, are also cleared.

Environmental Action Team, fly tipping and bag slashing

The Environmental Action Team will be on the ground working with the police to catch and prosecute bag slashers and fly tippers. We're trying to avoid these problems by encouraging students and landlords to use bulky waste collection services and household waste sorting sites. More information about these can be found on the Services page. We're also providing a shredding service for students to dispose of confidential paperwork in the students' unions and we're asking that bags for Green Streets are left out after 9.30am on the collection morning, to avoid bags being slashed and left out on the streets overnight. If you see any fly tippers on your streets, note down a description or the registration number of the car and call Leeds City Council on 0113 222 4406 to report it.

Recycling and green bins over changeover

Contamination rates in green bins are usually very high over changeover. If more than 50% of the bins on a street have non-recyclable stuff in them it isn't cost effective to send a recycling wagon and a general waste wagon to the same street so, the likelihood is that, the whole street's green bins will go to landfill. For this reason, if you want to be sure the contents of your recycling bin goes to the right place, leave it on your property between 15th June and 12th July. After 12th July, put it out as normal.