Plastic free pledge | Sustainability Service University of Leeds

What can I do?

We have pledged to be single-use plastic-free by 2023, to achieve this ambitious target we need everyone’s support.

How can you help?

Two branded reusable cups to celebrate the plastic free pledge

Two year update

Read what progress had been made at the two year point after announcing our bold plastic free ambition.

Read the full update

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Two year update
Sustainability newsletter

Plastic pledge

In 2018 the University of Leeds and Leeds University Union made a collaborative pledge to remove single-use plastic across all of its operations by 2023, #2023PlasticFree.

This pledge was one of the first and boldest pledges of any Higher Education organisation, showing our leadership in finding and implementing solutions to address global problems. The hugely ambitious target covers all areas of the University and will involve collaboration, research and operational changes to be successful.

Find out more about how you can help us to achieve this goal.

Two years on

It’s been two years since the pledge was made and our commitment to fulfilling this bold ambition remains as strong as ever. The Covid-19 pandemic might have made it necessary to increase the use of some single-use plastic items to keep our staff and students safe, but a huge amount of progress has still been made towards reaching our goal.

Read about the amazing achievements our community has made, both on campus and further afield, in our most recent update.

Read the full news story

Achieving our goal

To achieve this ambitious target it will require collaboration from all areas of the University, our strategy falls in to 3 key areas of activity:

Operational changes that include mapping single-use plastic, building the knowledge and capacity of staff, and changing operational processes in support of the pledge.
Research on single-use plastic is encouraged across academics and the student curriculum to find innovative alternatives, develop infrastructure and promote behaviour change.
Collaborative networks of activity have been developed between staff and students as well as with external stakeholders, supply chain and sector partners in order to share learning and overcome the challenges together.

These three core elements are all underpinned by communication, engagement and governance.

Find out more about how you can help us to achieve this goal or get in touch.