Do you remember how much trash there was when you moved in/out from college? How crazy, overflowingly full the dumpsters were?
I follow a blog from the website Earth911, and I was happy to find this story about Arizona State University and a program they have in place as students start to move out for the summer. It's called "Ditch the Dumpster," and this program started out of an idea driven by the students themselves. It's goal is to avoid filling countless dumpsters – and instead sort everything into items to be donated, reused, recycled or responsibly disposed of (instead of it going straight to the landfill). I found this post about a similar program at Stanford.
Even though it is focused on green practices, to accomplish this does take the time to organize as you are moving. As you go through things, pack things into boxes (or better yet into Rubbermaid reusable totes!), decide if you use/love/need it or if you could/should live without it. Just a small amount of time sorting creates a sustainable practice – reuse (or give to a friend or sell so someone else can reuse), donate or recycle!
I would imagine there a lot of other schools out there doing things like this (I hope so!), but I wanted to applaud ASU for this green initiative! Bravo! [This program even won one of the few 2011 ASU President's Awards for sustainability. That story here.]
The same is done at Colby College every year when students move out. It’s called the Rescue. Then every fall the incoming students re-use these items from a Rescue sale.
That’s great to hear! My congrats (and props) go out to Colby College as well! I’m assuming (and hoping) a lot of other colleges take on some sort of project like this. Thank you for pointing out another college that is leading the way with their sustainable efforts!