This article originally appeared in ݮƵ's Daily Bulletin.A message fromCampus Housing:
What happens with the leftover belongings that students leave in residence after they move out?
“There are a lot of students who move out of residence and often they can’t take their stuff with them, which is fair, but if you think about thousands of students moving out from residence each year, that’s a lot of stuff," says Lyndia Littel, project manager, strategic initiatives and investment."This isn’t a new problem. Every university or college town faces this issue, but we want to do our part to tackle waste from move-outs and make our campus more sustainable.”
This initiative began as a pilot for spring term residence move out and diverted1,400 lbsof unwanted belongings (everything from non-perishable food items to clothes, electronics, kitchen supplies, you name it!). Spring term holds the least number of residents across all three terms so we knew our impact would grow with thousands of students set to join us in the fall.
We are proud to announce that after thefall term,1,900 lbsof discarded student belongings were diverted from the landfill just by sorting these unwanted items appropriately. Approximately1,000 complete move outs occurred in December (which is comparable to the spring term). However, with the end of winter term just around the corner, will see over 5,200 students leave residence and our impact continue to grow.
Thank you to our partners (past and present),including theSustainability Office, WUSA, Dana Porter Library, Mission Thrift Store and The Working Centre.