University of Arizona works to make use of goods left behind at dorms

When college students who live in dorms pack up to leave for the summer, inevitably, a ton of stuff ends up in dumpsters, including books, refrigerators, food, electronics, furniture. The list goes on.

A University of Arizona partnership wants to change that.

The university’s residence life department, Office of Sustainability and student-led Green Team, as well as the Green Purchasing Project, and Procurement and Contracting Services are coming together to divert those items discarded by students from the landfill.

“It’s just astounding the amount of waste and materials you see during move-out period,” said Ben Champion, director of the UA’s Office of Sustainability. “You walk by dumpsters just full of stuff and you think, ‘Oh, my God, so much of this stuff, you can reuse.’ ”

Volunteers will collect donations from outgoing dorm residents at 15 of the 23 residence halls at the UA until May 12. The items will be sold at a rummage sale in July or donated to campus and local organizations.

The Dodge the Dumpster program is a “combination of staff and student teamwork and collaboration,” Champion said.

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“I think it’s important to be able to show people that you can reuse all these items that we throw away that still have value,” said Michael Beauregard, a UA sophomore who is part of the Green Team. There is a pervasive culture of waste where things are thrown away after a short time of use, he added.

The program started last year as a pilot project at five residence halls.

Last year, volunteers collected more than 18,000 pounds of items, the sophomore said. That included nearly 2,200 pounds of bedding, towels and clothing, which were donated to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and 1,028 pounds of nonperishable foods, which went to the UA’s campus pantry.

The goal this year is to collect between 55,000 and 60,000 pounds, Beauregard said. Mattress pads and bedding will be donated to a family welfare organization in Mexico, while food items will go to the campus pantry again. Books will go to the UA’s tutoring center, Think Tank, and toiletries will go to the UA Women’s Resource Center.

Cash proceeds will be used to support the Dodge the Dumpster project next year, Beauregard said.

“One of the biggest goals of the project is to keep as much as we can out of the landfill,” he said.