Spring cleaning efforts were in full swing last month as students leaving campus participated in move-out donation programs. Through these annual programs, unwanted items such as food, clothing, electronics, hygiene products, and various home goods are collected. Most items are donated to local organizations or back to the University community, helping those in need while also diverting a significant volume of waste from landfills.
Student donations were made through two programs: Move-out Cleanout, organized by the Sustainability Office; and Dump and Run, an event held annually by the student organization Grassroots. The two events work hand-in-hand, with Move-out Cleanout collecting food, hygiene, electronic, and clothing items, and Dump and Run collecting mixed household goods, such as lamps, rugs, microwaves, and more.
Efforts from Move-out Cleanout resulted in the collection of 21,740.2 pounds (10.87 tons) of clothing, food, hygiene products, and other items, surpassing the 2024 collection effort by more than 3,500 pounds. Items collected by Grassroots during Dump and Run will be made available to students in the fall semester at the sister event, Stop and Shop.
Move-out Cleanout
Bins for non-perishable food, hygiene products, and clothing were placed near the entrance of every residence hall to encourage students to donate rather than dispose. In addition to the Sustainability Office, the UR Food Pantry and the Office of Residential Life and Housing Services played critical roles, organizing and maintaining several of the food collection bins and helping to spread awareness of the program, respectively. University Facilities and Services provided essential infrastructure for the program, including the placement of drums and bins for donations.
Food and hygiene product donations
The Move-out Cleanout process resulted in a substantial amount of donated food and hygiene products, which were distributed to local community partners and the University:
- 3,944 pounds of food and 26 pounds of hygiene products were donated to the UR Food Pantry, which provides crucial support to University of Rochester students and postdocs experiencing food insecurity.
- 450 pounds of food were donated to Open Door Mission, a non-profit organization dedicated to assisting impoverished and unhoused communities in the Rochester area.
- 58.2 pounds of hygiene products were donated to Mt. Hope Family Center, a University organization committed to supporting at-risk and underserved families.
These donations consisted of sealed, unopened food products such as canned goods, pasta, and granola bars, as well as general hygiene products and toiletries. This year’s food donations saw an increase of almost 2,000 pounds compared to the previous year.
Clothes and shoes
In partnership with Goodwill of the Finger Lakes, 17,022 pounds of clothes and shoes were collected, an increase of over 1,500 pounds from the previous year. To help capture some of this volume moving forward, the University plans to launch a new partnership with Hope Dealers and St. Pauly Textiles for a year-round Share-a-Shoe donation program this upcoming academic year.
Electronics and refrigerators
Due to their complex composition of metals, plastics, and glass, electronics require specialized recycling processes. Students were directed to deposit electronics at the Sage loading dock or the UR Tech Store for safe and proper recycling. These and additional electronic items will be consolidated throughout the summer for collection and recycling later in the season by Sunnking.
Refrigerators contain hazardous coolants, specifically chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which pose environmental risks directly to the atmosphere. Improper disposal of refrigerators, such as placing them in general trash containers, can lead to refusal of collection by waste management services and eventual release of harmful pollutants in landfills. Refrigerators collected through Move-out Cleanout will undergo a process to safely remove CFCs, and their metal components will be recycled.
Dump and Run
Grassroots is the University of Rochester’s leading student-run environmental action and awareness group. The organization is “a good way for people to get involved in sustainability on campus,” says Grassroots co-president Kaylin Han. Every year, Grassroots organizes an event called Dump and Run, one of their most significant annual initiatives.
This event collects unwanted items students have accumulated during the academic year, including furniture, microwaves, school supplies, textbooks, clothing, small refrigerators, electronics, and rugs — most essentials for dorm life. This year’s main Dump and Run event occurred on May 5 at various residence halls across campus.
The items collected by Grassroots were placed into an off-campus storage unit for the summer. In the fall, Grassroots will host another of its annual events, Stop and Shop, where donated items will be made available to students for free.
Han emphasized the importance of increased student awareness for the Dump and Run program. She believes broader participation would reduce the need for students to purchase new items in the fall, promoting reuse and further diverting materials from landfills.
This year, the Sustainability Office organized an additional collection event at Riverview Apartments to capture items during the move-out of senior students over Commencement Weekend. Despite severe weather conditions, 185 pounds of reusable items were collected for donation to Open Door Mission for Rochesterians in need.
“Hopefully in the future, we can collect even more types of items that could be used to benefit students who cannot bring an abundance of things [to campus],” said Phil Piedmont, waste minimization specialist in the Sustainability Office.
Other end-of-year activities
Before packing their bags and moving on to the next chapter in their lives, many students celebrated at Commencement. The departmental receptions were setup as zero-waste events due to efforts initiated by the Sustainability Office. Thanks to the cooperation of the caterers, Horticulture and Grounds, and Zero-Waste Ranger volunteers, the events were able to capture 360 pounds of organic materials. This largely consisted of compostable serve ware and minimal food waste.
Acknowledgments
The success of this year’s initiatives is a testament to the collaborative efforts of the Sustainability Office, the UR Food Pantry, the Office for Residential Life and Housing Services, University Facilities and Services, partnering local organizations, and the many staff and student volunteers who contributed to making the move-out process as efficient and sustainable as possible.
Written by Kylin Roberts, ‘26
