STUDENTS in the Avenues are going green as part of a new scheme to encourage recycling.
Westbourne House in Princes Avenue is the first accommodation in Hull to trial new blue kitchen bins to collect recyclable material.
The scheme follows feedback from a number of focus groups with students from the University of Hull.
Roy Ng, a student who lives at Westbourne House, was involved with the focus groups. He said the scheme will "benefit the whole city".
He said: "It's made us more aware of what we can recycle and encouraged more students to do it.
"I'm really happy to be involved and make a difference."
Hull City Council hopes the idea will spur students on to help the environment as much as they can.
Councillor Martin Mancey, portfolio holder for environment and transport, said: "With more than 10,000 students in Hull, their participation in recycling schemes is essential if we want to send less waste to landfill."
The blue kitchen bin – the same colour as the city's mixed-recycling wheelie bin – is part of a trial scheme funded by local property provider Unicom, working with Hull City Council's recycling team.
The bins will tackle the hygiene problem of students storing recyclable packaging in the kitchen.
Karl Phillipson, lettings manager for Unicom, said: "Recycling is an important issue for everyone.
"Hopefully, this will be the start of a working scheme that can be rolled out among our many other properties."
Westbourne House is one of Unicom's larger properties, made up of 14 flats.
Recycling posters and blue bin information stickers have been introduced to make it clearer to the 45 students in the building what can be recycled.
The bins are used for cardboard, plastic, paper, tins, foil, glass and books.
Cllr Martin Mancey said: "We are delighted Unicom is supporting the city's recycling push and hope the students will be enthusiastic about taking part in this green scheme.
"We hope the scheme could be rolled out to other student accommodation in Hull."
He said the recycling push will help when the bin collections become fortnightly in April, particularly for such large residences.
Cllr Mancey said: "It will benefit the city for years to come."
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