Questions by Lisa Alexander
It is impossible to ignore how much students leave behind during move-out and how wasteful it is. Furniture, food, and trash are only some of the items they leave behind. This not only creates extra clean-up for campus staff but also makes it more challenging to keep waste out of landfills. In response, many campuses have stepped up their sustainability efforts and created programs that not only turn one student’s waste into another student’s gain but also educate students along the way.
Here to talk about how their campuses have cleaned up the move-out process are Ashley Roberts, coordinator for sustainability education at Clemson University in South Carolina; Dan Pedersen, executive director of housing and residential services at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb; Marianne Wieghaus, director of communications and sustainability for housing and dining services at Colorado State University in Fort Collins; and Anna Silverman, sustainability coordinator assistant for the Division of University Housing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
How does your campus address the waste of usable goods like food, room accessories, appliances, and clothes during the school year and when students move out of the residence halls? What processes or programs have you put in place for this?
Ashley Roberts: We have several programs in place that address this question. During the school year, Dave VanDeventer, recycling manager for Clemson, and his team partner with Aramark to collect food waste that is then used to create compost here at Clemson.
During the school year, we also have the Paw Pantry and The Nook located on campus. The Paw Pantry, a community-wide movement to reduce food insecurity and promote well-being, accepts donations of food items and school supplies for any student in need. The Nook is an employee-focused pantry designed to support faculty, staff, and graduate students who may be experiencing food insecurity.
Another program, Lighten Your Load, evolved as a partnership between Clemson University and a non-profit organization called The Dream Center. During the school year, outdoor collection bins are located around campus and within the laundry area of each residence hall. Students, faculty, and staff can donate clothing, which is then collected each month. Prior to move-out each year, additional bins are placed throughout the residence halls, and The Dream Center supplies trucks staffed with volunteers throughout campus. During this time, we collect unused school supplies, furniture, small appliances, and clothing, which are taken to local Dream Center locations within Pickens, Oconee, and Greenville counties and then resold as part of programs supporting residents in the local area.
Dan Pedersen: Several student organizations at Northern Illinois University sponsor food collection drives towards the end of the spring semester. We also have a campus Food Pantry that accepts donations from students prior to the end of the spring semester. At the end of each term, housing and residential services partners with Northern Illinois Goodwill Services to co-sponsor a program that accepts donations so that usable items go to Goodwill rather than being put in the trash. In May of 2024, our students diverted more than 10,000 pounds of donations to Goodwill through the program. This translated into 1,675 hours of jobs and skill training opportunities that Northern Illinois Goodwill Services provided to our region.
Marianne Wieghaus: This program has evolved greatly over the years. We used to collect donations inside each hall for our Surplus department, which then prepares them for a huge tent sale held on campus in August. That evolved into a partnership with several regional organizations and charities to collect used goods in semi-trailers and box trucks stationed outside most of the halls. Today, we are planning a scaled-down version of that program, working with just one organization that will collect, clean, repair, sort, and then resell the items in their local store, mainly to incoming families. In addition, university housing plans to host a swap event before move-out to help reduce the amount collected.
Anna Silverman: We have a variety of diversion programs to reduce waste on campus at UW-Madison. A lot of material is repurposed through our SWAP (Surplus with a Purpose) program, where UW departments can send furniture, appliances, office supplies, or really anything else they are no longer using as long as it is functional. These items are then auctioned off to buyers on an online platform. In 2023, more than 76,000 pounds of items were repurposed through SWAP. We also donate material to our community partners, usually before we consider sending it to SWAP. This often happens when a residence hall undergoes a renovation and we suddenly have lots of items on our hands in perfectly good condition. This helps us dispose of mattresses, chairs, bedframes, and sheets while helping out local nonprofits and serving the greater Madison community.
We facilitate food drives with partner organizations in the residence halls during the school year, and about 4,000 pounds of nonperishable foods are placed in food donation bins set up during winter and spring move-out. There are Goodwill donation bins in two of our residence halls so that students can donate their clothes year-round. We are always trying to engage students in sustainability practices, and these opportunities help make it an easy choice.
Sustainable move-in and move-out operations provide extra donation and recycling streams for students to dispose of items like electronics, metal, furniture, and school supplies at the beginning and end of the academic year. They can drop them off at their move-out site to be picked up by local Goodwill and St. Vincent de Paul stores, ensuring that these items are given second homes. We also collect discarded microwaves to donate to community organizations and distribute to low-income students in the fall.
How long have these programs been going on your campus? Who were the essential people at the table when these programs were created? How did you land on the program that exists today on your campus?
Roberts: The Clemson University Food Waste Collection Program to produce Clemson Compost began in 2011. A grant from South Carolina’s Department of Health and Environmental Control allowed the university to purchase an In-Vessel Compost Unit, and so we’ve converted nearly 10 million pounds of food waste into compost since then.
The Paw Pantry began in January 2016 and was created by a team from here at Clemson. Kate Radford, current executive director for the Center for Student Leadership and Engagement, was a member of the original team.
The Lighten Your Load program was in place when I started in 2017 and continued to evolve over the years. In the current period, residential housing, auxiliary enterprises, facilities, recycling, and The Dream Center are the major stakeholders in facilitating the program. The program has evolved to meet additional needs and to address areas of concern after each move-out.
Pedersen: Our program has been in place since 2017. We were approached by Goodwill Services after an employee of their program moved a student out of our residence halls and mentioned to a supervisor that there was an opportunity to implement a donation program at NIU.
Wieghaus: At least a decade, I’d estimate, and they have required partnerships with other housing and dining service areas (sustainability is a very small area within our large department), including university housing and internal facilities teams. We also work closely with the university’s Integrated Solid Waste and Surplus departments. This year’s program will be smaller than it has been in past years; move-out is a busy time of year for everyone, and the donation program is only one piece of the puzzle, so we’ve had to scale down significantly because of our limited resources. However, we have a strong partnership with the organization we’re planning to work with this year, as reliability is key to ensuring a successful event.
Silverman: Sustainable move-in and move-out efforts began around 2015, but the current process that now diverts over half of all material from the landfill was developed by previous Housing Sustainability Coordinator Breana Nehls in 2016. The move-out program is now a week-long event involving almost 200 student and staff volunteers, and it diverts thousands of pounds through eight specialty recycling and donation streams; the program is planned extensively by a committee of dedicated sustainability representatives across campus departments. Current Housing Sustainability Coordinator Malorie Garbe ensures that everything runs smoothly and that more material is diverted from landfills each year.
What are the successes of these programs for students and your campus?
Roberts: The university is committed to our sustainability program. Partnering with Aramark to receive food waste for composting keeps costs down (lowering landfill costs) and creates a renewable product that can be used on campus. Non-perishable food products and other usable food supplies donated to the Paw Pantry and to The Nook provide resources for students, staff, and faculty who need assistance. The Lighten Your Load program took in more than 56,000 pounds of donatable items that were sold back to people in our community, including students.
Pedersen: Our students are able to engage in a sustainability priority that aligns with their values and passion.
Wieghaus: Last year, we donated more than 50,000 pounds to regional organizations. The resale of these items is a win-win for both the campus and our students. We’re keeping these things out of the landfill AND providing incoming students access to gently used, reasonably priced goods. Additionally, diverting items from the dumpsters and surrounding areas helps keep campus clean during commencement and other end-of-year activities.
Silverman: Through these programs, we diverted 652,082 pounds of material from landfills in 2023. Our move-in process diverts 50,000 pounds on average every year due to specialty recycling streams and volunteers monitoring sites. This is a huge coordination process and an important one because it often gives students their first dose of sustainability education on campus and sets them up to practice sustainable recycling habits for the rest of their time here. Move-out is even more tremendous. Seven days of rover driving, thousands of pounds hauled around campus, and hundreds of volunteer hours in 2024 helped divert 162,556 pounds from landfills. Much of the tonnage (from the rooms of 8,000 students) was donated to organizations and individuals in need.
What are the challenges? What parts of the program need to be updated or revised for the future?
Roberts: Each year, our teams review the programs and look for ways to improve each one. A significant challenge is getting the information to the students, staff, and faculty here at the university, many of whom are not aware of these programs and how they help people right here at Clemson and in the Clemson community.
Pedersen: The major challenge for this program is being able to properly monitor the collection bins so they can be changed out during finals week and then used for more donations. There are some items that Goodwill Services cannot accept, so we need to educate students about this.
Wieghaus: Managing the items left behind at move-out requires strong partnership and buy-in from the larger organization to be successful. This is a difficult program to execute, which is why it has had to change so many times over the years. Managing that much stuff is a challenging task to accomplish gracefully. We regularly encounter issues with parking availability, reliability of the organizations we partner with, staff buy-in and involvement, and student awareness and education.
We plan to dial up our communication efforts greatly this year, focusing on encouraging residents to plan their move-out early, take home as much as possible prior to move-out week, provide more education on how to prepare items for donation properly, and ensure that all residents know where and when they can drop off their donations. We hope this will make a difference in the amount of waste that is collected.
Silverman: I’d say we could always do a better job educating students and their families before move-in and move-out even begin. The biggest obstacle we face is the contamination of waste streams due to students putting materials in the wrong bin or not breaking down boxes. Move-in is often their most direct exposure to our recycling system, so it’s crucial that they understand what goes where. Also, many students have misconceptions about move-in and move-out and the impact of these colossal undertakings. Every year, our diversion rate goes up. It’s always our goal to expand our reach and create a convenience culture of sustainability, which is how we bookend the school year.
Lisa Alexander is the program manager for sustainability programs and initiatives for resident life at the University of Maryland in College Park. She is also the chair of the ACUHO-I Sustainability Committee.
