Student Ideas

Skip to main content Accessibility Help?

Got an idea to make University life better? Use ‘Change It’ and we could help make it happen.

Change It is a platform that gives each and every student the opportunity to share ideas which will have a positive impact on your time at University. Tell us what your suggestion is – no matter how big or small – and we will use our democratic processes to support your suggestion every step of the way. Your idea could be the next catalyst for change on our campus!

Students can then vote and comment on your ideas. Once your idea has received 20 'upvotes' – which tells us other students like and support it - we will get to work.

Find out how Guild Democracy works

Submissions stay live and open for votes on our website for 2 weeks once they've been approved, so make sure you get people voting on your idea!

Downvotes

Students can downvote ideas but this does not counteract the number of upvotes an idea has received.

e.g. an idea could have 30 downvotes, but as long as it has received 20 upvotes this idea will still be considered, and taken through our democratic processes.

Submission Types

There are two kinds of submissions you can make to Change It: Ideas and Petitions.

How to submit a petition

Log in now & submit an idea below!

If you have any questions about how Change It works, you can get in touch with the Democracy Team at democracy@liverpool.ac.uk

Ideas

Students can submit an idea if they want the Guild to have policy on a particular issue, or campaign or work on a particular matter. Ideas can be about a wide range of things; including the Guild, University and the wider community. This can range from simple, operational ideas to larger scale campaigns. Submitting an idea is also the way to get the matter discussed at Guild Summit.

Back to list

38 up votes 1 down votes
Vote up Vote down

39 voters

Reusable Plastic Cups

Submitted 2 years ago by Alice Pitman

Expired
- sustainability
1comment

When events occur in the guild e.g. sporting events, currently the guild hands out disposable plastic cups as an alternative to collecting glasses and them smashing. This wastes a lot of plastic. As a society LUMOS was suggesting the idea that the sphinx etc. have reusable plastic/bamboo cups that customers would have to place a deposit down for but then receive back once the cup is returned. The same cup could also then be used throughout the night.

Abigail Morris: 2:03pm on 6 Jun 24 During gigs or very busy period in the bars, the Guild uses clear flexible polypropylene (PP) cups. Once finished with, these cups enter the Guild's regular mixed recycling waste stream. Reusable plastic / bamboo cups could be an alternative to this, however, during busy periods plastic cups are used as bars are limited by the number of clean glasses available. A reusable cup would encounter the same issues as it would need to be cleaned after each use for health and safety reasons. At our gigs, it is required that any cups used to serve drinks are collapsible in order to avoid injury if any are thrown, hence more solid reusable cups again wouldn't be appropriate. Bioplastic (PLA) cups are an alternative to PP cups. These are made using plant-derived polymers which eliminates the reliance on fossil fuel-derived plastics. However, very specific conditions are needed for these cups to be composted correctly, so they cannot just be disposed of in the Guild's regular recycling waste stream. As such additional facilities would be needed in order to dispose of them correctly, meaning a significant additional expense. As such these currently wouldn't be a viable alternative to the cups currently used, however we will continue to look for more eco-friendly alternatives.