Cardiff Council Helps Students Move Out Responsibly as Recycling Scheme Reaches Record Levels

This summer, Cardiff Council successfully supported students to reuse and recycle their unwanted items at the end of the academic year.

The Council worked with landlords, universities and students’ unions to help thousands of students move out of Cardiff for the summer holidays, to remove waste, increase recycling, donate unwanted items to charity and keep the streets of Cathays and Plasnewydd as clean as possible.

Extensive engagement work was also carried out before and during the move-out period to inform as many students as possible about the additional services available. Officers visited student neighbourhoods, provided advice on recycling and waste collections, and promoted the range of disposal options available.

In total, the Council engaged with 5,029 students throughout the campaign through outreach events, door-knocking and visits to pop-up recycling sites, including:

• 1,001 students through outreach events
• 481 students through door-to-door engagement
• 3,547 students at pop-up recycling sites

A key part of the programme was The Big Takeaway, a reuse and recycling initiative that provided convenient drop-off locations in Cathays and Plasnewydd between 15 June and 5 July. The scheme gave students an easy alternative to leaving unwanted items on the street and ensured materials could be reused by local charities and community organisations.

The Students on the Move campaign delivered its strongest recycling performance to date, collecting 17,493kg of unwanted items from students across the city. This included 12,592kg in Cathays and 4,901kg in Roath.

The total is a significant increase on previous years, rising from 6,422kg in 2024 and 7,131kg in 2025. Students also donated an impressive 587kg of non-perishable food to Cardiff Foodbank.

The campaign was supported by enhanced cleansing operations across both Cathays and Plasnewydd, with dedicated teams carrying out additional waste removal while monitoring known waste hotspot locations during the busiest periods.

Waste enforcement officers were on hand to tackle waste-related issues. More than 1,280 engagement and education letters were sent to landlords across Cathays and Plasnewydd, giving information on how waste should be presented.

As a result, more than 250 properties will receive Community Protection Warnings as part of the Council’s ongoing efforts to ensure that both Cathays and Plasnewydd remain clean and tidy. 11.68 tonnes of residual waste and 3.78 tonnes of bulky waste were removed as part of the operation.