Generate less waste when moving out
A familiar scene is painted every year in college towns.
Pyramids of couches cast shadows over dumpsters. Electronics pile high on asphalt and gather grime while waiting for a sanitation employee to whisk them away to a new home.
Moving out is a tough job that requires tough choices. Generating waste by throwing out old belongings is one of those choices.
Jake Smith
Last month, a fellow writer at The Argonaut wrote a concise guide to raiding trash receptacles in Moscow following students’ departures for the summer. While I strongly agree with seizing the day and gaining treasure where others saw trash, I do not support students unloading thousands of pounds of waste in dumpsters and landfills.
According to Chasing Green, a Washington-based group striving to host communication on environmental issues, the average college student produces 640 pounds of solid waste each year.
In a study by Tufts University, researchers registered 50 more tons of waste from May to June than the average annual 180 tons.
There are several alternatives to generating large amounts of waste in a small community like Moscow.
Being frugal students, the first option would be to sell unwanted wares. An open Facebook group called “Free & For Sale” offers an outlet of 1,126 members around the Moscow community looking to buy and sell used belongings.
Craigslist is also another basic example of buying, or bartering, old stuff one may consider junk. But if you can’t sell something, or no one responds to your posts, there are programs hosted at the University of Idaho to get rid of old items.
Free Cycle, an event hosted by UI students and faculty for approximately six years now, is a way to get rid of those items that won’t sell online. As a means of diverting leftover items from the waste stream, items are placed on campus for the public to peruse and trade for.
Even unusable items like bedding donated to Free Cycle have historically been turned over to animal shelters.
If UI’s Free Cycle program on campus doesn’t serve one’s needs off campus, there are guides to run similar programs elsewhere.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provides a step-by-step guide to host a program called Move In/Move Out Day. The program diverts and reduces waste by aggregating local nonprofit organizations to accept perfectly useable donations that would have otherwise ended up in a dumpster.
Don’t feel like listening to the EPA? A simple chat with UI’s Sustainability Center could turn out to be productive. The Sustainability Center is a fountain of knowledge with a passion for making this community a better place to live in.
Making a change in the environment doesn’t have to require a long-term grand scheme. Just ask a buddy if he or she wants an old microwave. Post on Facebook to see if someone will take your old velvet armchair off your hands.
Small choices made today can produce profound results tomorrow, so try some alternatives before piling unwanted furniture next to an apartment complex’s dumpster. If anything, it would make sanitation employees’ lives easier.
Jake Smith can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @notjakesmith