Behind the Scenes at Raisin

George King

Tuesday 22 November 2011

Did you participate in the Foam fight on Raisin Monday? We did! Every year, the University helps to organise this bizarre, unique, exhilarating tradition that is so unusual we are broadcast around the world. From the Students’ Association to Health and Safety to Estates and the Environment Team, there is a lot of behind the scenes work that goes into making this day run smoothly….

After a briefing with bacon rolls and hot coffee, we set off to man our posts. The Environment Team and the Grounds staff organize two full size skips to take away the Raisin Receipts that are brought to the quad. Binn Skips, the company used, will recycle over 90% of this material after it is picked up! This is through a sorting and ‘dirty MRF’ (materials recovery facility) process, where rubbish is sorted at a plant to recover all possible recyclates, including wood, metals, plastic, paper and card, and tyres.

Years ago the amount of rubbish generated at Raisin was no way near what it is today, but these days with so many more students and ambitious academic parents these skips are nearly completely full by noon! Students are so creative these days we were very pleasantly surprised when the first students on site this year had real raisins as their receipts! Notable items that came through this year included:

the most massive blue balloon that popped on a low hanging branch…

the Mystery Machine…

a number of impressive thrones…

and even a wooden shackle rack…

Each year, we try to encourage academic parents to be creative with their Raisin receipts in terms of keeping the environment in mind, because essentially all the hard work of the academic parents ends up in the skip… As you can see, all sorts of things end up in there! We are very pleased that students are so keen to work with us to ensure that the Raisin foam fight is a success for all.

We even got to enjoy some of the receipts left with us!

After all the hard work, the Environment Team went through to the quad to join the rest of Estates and watch the foam fight…

And witnessed Helen Mackie, Assistant Director of Estates, welcoming one of the newest members of Estates, Beth Robinson, Health and Safety Officer.

Beth really enjoyed being ‘Mackied’…

Patrick O’Hare, Students’ Association President, even managed to get David Stutchfield, Energy Officer, and Barbara Aitken, Environment Officer!

(Wanted: For Foaming the Environment Team.)

Here is the before and after of the quad!

After all the fun, all the helpers chipped in together to clean up the mess. The SRC organized a brilliant clean up with student volunteers as did the Kate Kennedy Club.

And as the Environment Team left for the day and headed back to the office, the Grounds Department came out in full force to return the quad to normality.

Thank you all for a wonderful, smooth Raisin Foam Fight 2011, we look forward to seeing you next year!

See Bubble TV’s video on Raisin to see some of  our staff members!