This is a busy time on campus, with students wrapping up classes, taking finals and moving out of the residence halls.
Housing & Dining Services annually coordinates the residence hall Move Out process and does everything possible to provide resources and opportunities to help students find alternatives to throwing things away.
What to do with all the stuff?
As students pack up and prepare to move out of the residence hall rooms they have occupied for the past one or two semesters, many will likely realize that they have more stuff than they can take with them. With approximately 5,400 students moving out between Monday and Saturday, thousands of pounds of excess items will need to get stored off-campus, find new homes through donations, or make their way to recycling and waste bins.
Students are learning that there are many options to sustainably pack up their rooms. A component of sustainability education on campus is creating an awareness of how much students buy and bring to campus in the first place.
“At the beginning of each semester, Housing & Dining Services reminds students that they will need to move out all their belongings at the end of the year,” said Kirstie Tedrick, sustainability project manager with the department.
“However, it’s a challenge, because enthusiastic students often bring lots of things to furnish and decorate their new homes on campus.”
Fine-tuning the collection process
Over the years, Housing & Dining Services has been refining the Move Out process to find new ways to reduce waste. Aiding in this effort has been a longtime partnership with CSU Surplus Property to collect reusable items and either sell them or responsibly recycle them.
“In the past, we collected all the donations and worked with Surplus Property for many weeks, sorting and pricing items to be sold in a community-wide sale,” said Mary Liang, assistant director of sustainability for the department.
“But this became a huge endeavor that required a lot of staff and monetary resources. The last straw was when the City of Fort Collins required CSU to hire police to help direct traffic for the sale. The event became too large for us to manage with our limited resources,” added Liang.
“After that, we shifted to a donation model – instead involving regional organizations through which we could give back to the community since we didn’t have a space to hold on to and store items.”
Donation stations
Staff working at the donation stations will be accepting gently-used items (such as clothing, linens, school/household supplies, mattress toppers, and functioning small appliances) at trucks/trailers outside of the halls Wednesday, May 8 – Friday, May 10, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Surplus Property continues to remain involved, keeping mini fridges and microwaves out of the landfill by pulling them aside for re-sale or diverting them to appropriate recycling facilities.
Pack it. Store it. Donate it.
Through this new donation model, called ‘Pack it. Store it. Donate it.’ students are provided with options for what to do with their excess things at Move Out. They are encouraged to either pack their belongings to take with them, store things through local storage companies, or donate unwanted items at on-campus donation stations for distribution to local charities.
Local beneficiaries include the ARC Thrift Store, Goodwill, ChairTableHome LLC, Lutheran Family Services Rocky Mountain, and Habitat for Humanity. Housing & Dining Services will also collect and recycle mattress toppers through Spring Back CO. Hundreds of big and bulky foam mattress toppers will be kept out of the waste stream and diverted for recycling.
Help needed: Be a part of CSU Move Out
For the donation stations to effectively and efficiently collect and sort items, many helpers are needed over three days, May 8-10 to staff donation stations. Interested in helping out? Sign up at signup.com/go/ZmpOXAq
For more information about residence hall Move Out, visit housing.colostate.edu/halls/move-out-spring.
