Termez State University addresses outsourced services and the supply chain through its Sustainable Procurement and Purchasing Policy, campus disposable-reduction practices and external recycling arrangements. Its approach connects the purchasing of goods and services with waste prevention, reusable alternatives, separation of recyclable materials and their transfer to a specialist enterprise.
The procurement policy covers goods and services, including catering and event provision. Its environmental criteria address minimal packaging, recyclability and whole-life impacts. It provides for sustainability clauses in supplier contracts, vendor assessments and communication of requirements through tender documents and supplier orientation. These provisions establish the policy route for carrying the university’s environmental expectations into externally delivered services and purchasing relationships.
The university’s Policy on Waste Management, Resource Minimization, and Sustainable Practices took effect on 1 January 2025. It supports the university-wide Reduce, Reuse and Recycle programme, which covers academic buildings, administrative offices, laboratories, student facilities, canteens and campus service areas. The programme combines reducing waste at source with reuse, separate collection and cooperation with waste-processing organisations. Its reduction measures include restricting single-use plastics, using reusable items and purchasing products with minimal packaging.
Food service is a direct application of disposable reduction within campus services. The university’s published waste-management account states that single-use plastic containers have been replaced in canteens across its campuses. The paper and plastic reduction programme describes reusable ceramic and porcelain cups, plates, bowls, teapots and other washable items used in university kitchens, dining areas and service facilities. These practices reduce reliance on disposable food-service items at the point where meals and drinks are provided.
Reusable tableware changes the material requirements of catering. Cups, plates and bowls remain in service through repeated use, while the demand for replacement disposable items is reduced. In this part of the programme, the operational emphasis is on durable alternatives used in everyday meal provision. The university’s documented practice therefore addresses consumption within a service activity, as well as the subsequent management of the waste that activity generates.
Accessible drinking-water facilities provide another practical measure. Permanent water points in campus buildings and outdoor areas allow students and staff to refill reusable containers. The programme identifies these facilities as a means of reducing routine purchases of water in disposable plastic bottles. The combination of refill facilities and reusable food-service items addresses two recurring sources of disposable consumption in campus services.
The supply-chain connection also includes packaging brought onto university premises. The public 3R programme places packaging from university suppliers within its waste-measurement and monitoring arrangements, alongside canteen disposables, office waste and laboratory residues. This reporting scope recognises that university waste includes materials associated with purchased products and externally provided services. The programme’s preference for minimal packaging addresses material demand before disposal, while separate collection addresses the recyclable material that remains.
An external operational relationship is established with TechnoBioEko LLC. The university’s paper and plastic reduction programme describes a cooperation agreement covering collection, transportation, sorting and processing of recyclable materials generated on university premises. Recyclable waste is separated at campus collection points and transferred to the enterprise for further handling. This provides a practical connection between university waste arrangements and the work of an outside service provider.
The documented recycling process follows materials beyond their initial collection. Waste is gathered on campus, loaded for transportation, delivered to the processing facility and sorted by material type for recycling or further recovery. The university’s programme records this sequence together with the cooperation agreement and photographs of collection and processing. It gives the external provider a defined place in the university’s waste-management arrangements and supports traceability after materials leave campus.
Separation facilities support this cooperation across university sites. The programme documents sorting bins and collection arrangements at the Main, Western and Northern campuses and the Rectorate. Separating paper, plastic, glass and other recoverable materials provides the basis for transferring recyclable streams to the processing enterprise. Prevention, reuse and external processing consequently address successive stages in the handling of materials used in university operations and services.
The 2025 paper and plastic account records a combined waste volume of 86.5 tonnes, compared with 95.0 tonnes in 2024. The decrease was 8.5 tonnes, or approximately 8.95%. Plastic waste fell from 61.0 to 55.5 tonnes, a reduction of 5.5 tonnes. Paper waste fell from 34.0 to 31.0 tonnes, a reduction of 3.0 tonnes. These are university-wide results associated with the combined paper-saving, disposable-reduction and waste-management programme.
The procurement policy also provides for supplier screening and ongoing sustainability communication. Its monitoring arrangements envisage vendor-compliance reviews, quarterly internal assessment, procurement audits and annual sustainability reporting. A formal policy review is scheduled every three years. These are the policy’s stated implementation and review arrangements for managing environmental expectations in purchasing and supplier relationships.
Operational monitoring under the 3R programme includes annual paper and plastic measurements, review of waste separation, documentation of transfers to recycling organisations and sustainability reporting. The Vice-Rector for Finance and Economic Affairs coordinates implementation with the relevant administrative and environmental units. Records of material use, collection and external transfer provide the university with information for reviewing waste performance and its recycling partnership.