The UA will not hold a rummage sale this year for items donated by dorm students as they move out of their rooms this week.
Instead, the University of Arizona is teaming with the Salvation Army, which is collecting the items turned in by dorm students and selling them starting Monday, May 13.
In previous years, the UAβs sustainable move-out program β nicknamed βDodge the Dumpsterβ β collected as much at 86,000 pounds of household goods, food and recyclables from students as they moved out at the end of school. Many of the items were either sold to help fund the waste diversion program or donated to local nonprofit organizations.
This year, the UA placed donation areas in dorm lobbies and students were asked to donate items such as nonperishable food, toiletries, cleaning supplies, fridges, microwaves, mattress pads, rugs, clothing, lamps, storage bins and electronics, said Jill Burchell, senior coordinator for sustainability operations and initiatives.
Burchell said the items are not abandoned, but are donated by students for the purpose of re-using and keeping them out of landfills.
She said the previous effort of collecting items and preparing them for the rummage sale was not a sustainable program because of several reasons, including not enough staff coordination, high expense preparing for the sale and difficulty in getting enough student workers to help with the effort. She said the partnership with the nonprofit should be a much better model.
Because of this yearβs effort with the Salvation Army, the UA will not hold its rummage sale to sell the donated dorm items. The Salvation Army, which performed all the labor to collect and remove the donated items, will keep all the proceeds from the sales, Burchell said.
The Salvation Army will have the items available beginning Monday at area stores.
For Tucson-area Salvation Army store information, including locations and hours, visit www.salvationarmytucson.org/family-thrift-stores.
