A great team effort by many CSU and local nonprofit volunteers helped continue the CSU sustainability tradition of keeping leftover student items out of the landfill during residence hall move-out.
For the past five years, CSU Housing & Dining Services and CSU Surplus have teamed up to collect unwanted items from students leaving the residence halls. Through the “Leave It Behind” program and the subsequent “Community Tent Sale,” items were collected, sorted, tagged and sold through Surplus.
This year the program evolved into “Take It or Leave It,” which encouraged students to bring unwanted items to large trucks conveniently parked outside the residence halls.
Volunteers were on hand during finals week to collect and sort items in the trucks, which included microwave ovens, mini fridges, clothing, bedding, shelving, lamps, bikes, etc. Collected items were donated and distributed to more than 30 local nonprofit agencies.
By the numbers
- 10 large collection trucks
- 5 days of collection (M-F)
- 326 volunteer hours (M-F)
- 624 hours (M-F, 180 hours by CSU staff; remainder through Homeless Gear)
- 32,033 lbs. of items collected and diverted from the landfill
- 34 nonprofit agency beneficiaries
“This year we continued to keep tens of thousands of pounds of material out of the Larimer County landfill and into the hands of people who want it and need it,” says HDS Assistant Director of Sustainability Tim Broderick. “As we look to the future, we will continue to sharpen how we collect materials and encourage our students to take with them what they brought.”
