From dumpster to donation: Area colleges, students reduce waste left at year's end
It happens every year.
College student spend their last couple weeks on campus cleaning out dorms and packing belongings.
The stuff that doesn't deem worthy of packing often ends up in dumpsters. Rugs. Bedding. Appliances. Shelving. Food.
This year was different at Marist College.
Several student organizations partnered to collect items their peers were piling up at residence halls. Instead of throwing them out, the items were sorted, packed onto trucks and donated to local organizations, such as Hudson River Housing and Dutchess Outreach.
Each year, thousands of pounds of solid waste is created at the end of colleges' academic years. But, several area schools are taking steps to reduce that total.
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While many of these efforts are organized by student organizations, higher education institutions are formalizing sustainability efforts to find new homes for the items amassed by their students. Some area colleges are even tracking how much is collected.
Clothes, shelves, books and cookware are stored for incoming student population who would otherwise need to shop for the same items, or are distributed out into the local community.
"As students leave campus at the end of the semester, they leave a lot behind that normally ends up in the dumpsters and eventually clogging up landfills. And when so many people in Poughkeepsie are in need, this is especially wasteful," said Kaitlyn Wiehe, who helped organize the collection at Marist.
Wiehe will be a senior and works with the college's Center for Civic Engagement and Leadership. She built on the idea of a former student who last year had set up collection sites and gave away all the items at Mansion Square Park.
Marist collected enough to fill five box trucks, Wiehe said, which were delivered to nonprofits and thrift stores in the area.
"We were able to restock a lot of our supplies, including the food pantry, that we keep for emergencies for all," Hudson River Housing Resident Services Manager Marsha Eldridge said of the donation it received from Marist.
"Due to limited space, most items were given out shortly after receiving them. The families felt like they were shopping and who doesn't like to shop — especially when it's free," she added.
Sustainable efforts
Estimates place the amount of solid waste incurred by the average college student at 640 pounds per year, with the nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council finding in a 2019 study college students waste 112 pounds of food per year.
Colleges around the region have helped to restock the shelves and stores of local nonprofits by donating what students leave behind as they travel back home, which can add up.
Colleges are also restocking their own shelves with items that can be used by first-year students coming to campus the next semester. Bard College has a free store and a food pantry where students can pick up an item, no questions asked. Vassar holds a "swap shop" where outgoing students can pass on items to students coming back the next semester.
"Knowing that we're a college and that we're going to have students coming every year, students are going to buying the same exact things, it's really important that we track to see how much gets left behind, so we know how could be reused," said Cora Kenfield, Vassar's assistant dean for strategic planning. The college in the past has tracked what items get used by students.
Bard College tries to match up the items that may be needed in the community, such as donating binders, which are distributed to the Red Hook Central School District, or used towels to an animal shelter. The college also ends up with anywhere from 60 to 100 abandoned bicycles each year, which are donated to organizations in Red Hook and Kingston.
Colleges also work with outside organizations, such as Grad Bag and Helpsy, which reuse or recycle what students leave behind. Grad Bag works with colleges in New York and Boston and holds "giveaway" events. Helpsy is a for-profit company that collects clothes and shoes that are either sold to thrift stores or used as insulation or stuffing.
"(Helpsy) is my backup plan," said Laurie Husted, chief sustainability officer Bard College. "So they came (on Wednesday) and took 100 bags of clothes, plus a full Helpsy (bin) that we couldn't move last year."
Saba Ali: Sali1@poughkeepsiejournal.com: 845-451-4518: @MsSabaAli.
This article originally appeared on Poughkeepsie Journal: College campus waste reduced at Dutchess schools
