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Trash for Treats: Students Can Exchange Recyclables for Desserts During Move-Out

Sustainability

Three students with backpacks walking away from the camera
BY LINNEA DULEY ’16

Published May 3, 2016 (UPDATED: May 6, 2016)

At the end of the year—busy with studying, exams and end-of-year packing—students are often in a rush to dispose of their unwanted items while moving out of their houses.

Update May 6, 2016: Over the course of three nights during this year’s move-out, the Office of Campus Sustainability collected six boxes full of unwanted clothing, 27 bins of recyclables and handed out 320 desserts to Smithies participating in a new trash for treats initiative.

“The amount of waste that the grounds department hauls away increases dramatically during student move-out,” says Brett McGuinness, Smith’s assistant manager of building services.

Among the items typically left behind are articles of clothing and many things that could have been recycled, he adds. How much waste does that add up to?

“Smithies usually leave behind 12 tons of clothes each year,” says Campus Sustainability Coordinator Emma Kerr. She notes that those items are collected by building services staff and then donated to nonprofits.

To combat the trash problem—and to speed up the recycling and donating process this year—the Office of Campus Sustainability is sponsoring a new initiative where students can exchange unwanted items for a free dessert from the Wheelhouse Farm food truck.

Paper products, bottles and cans will be accepted, along with articles of clothing in good condition. Recycling trucks will be making the rounds of campus houses from 4 to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, May 3 to 5, to pick up items that students have cleaned out of their rooms.

A complete schedule of pickup times and locations is available on Facebook.

In addition to reducing the amount of waste produced during move-out, Kerr says the new pickup program aims to “incentivize students to bring out their recycling so we can collect the waste earlier.”

The move-out initiative arrives on the heels of Earth Week, when there was a display of trash—aptly named Mt. Trashmore—that students created on Chapin Lawn. The display, which showed the amount of trash generated in five Smith houses in just one night, demonstrated the ongoing need to make recycling a priority on campus, Kerr says.

The Office of Campus Sustainability is hoping the new move-out plan will create a greener end-of-year experience for the college community. “If the program is as successful as we hope, we’d definitely want to continue it past this year,” Kerr says.

Laura Lilienkamp '18 (left) and Leigh Johnston '18 were among 320 Smithies who exchanged unwanted items for treats during this year's move-out.

Laura Lilienkamp ’18 (left) and Leigh Johnston ’18 were among 320 Smithies who exchanged unwanted items for treats during this year's move-out.