Donations reduce waste across campus

Although final exams occupied most of students’ time during the last week of school, moving out of apartments and residence halls also ate away at the final days of the semester.

While some students opted to donate unwanted furniture from their apartments, others decided to leave it on their lawns.

Sophomore Cristi Williams chose to do just that. She left a dresser, desk and cabinet out on the grass to see if anyone would take it. The dresser and desk were taken within hours, while the cabinet took a couple of days for anyone to pick up.

Williams wanted to leave her things on the front lawn because it wasn’t too far to carry them.

“I didn’t have anyone helping me move,” she said, adding that she did not see the people who took the items.

Others have opted to donate their belongings.

The Hoosier to Hoosier program has been working with the residence halls to get students to donate items that will then be sold at a sale in August at Memorial Stadium.

“It helps eliminate waste,” said Katie Harvey, campus coordinator for the IU United Way Campaign. “It just saves a lot that would typically go to landfills.”

Steve Akers, associate director for environmental operations at Residential Programs and Services, said the amount of trash during the last week of school is double the normal rate at the residence halls.

Akers said the increase in trash is one reason the residence halls have started to advocate for students donating unwanted items to benefit the Hoosier to Hoosier program.

About 50 percent of the students in the residence halls donate or leave things behind when they move out, Akers estimated.

The residence halls have bins in the lobby where students were able to put donations.
Harvey said the program also wants to include the Bloomington community, and the effort to get people to donate their items has also spread to student apartments.

The sale of the donated items will occur Aug. 21, with the proceeds benefiting the United Way for Monroe County and the local Habitat for Humanity, Harvey said.

“Really, we want people to want the sale to benefit the entire community,” Harvey said.