Moving Out of Halls? Re-Use don’t Waste
Monday 22 Jun 2009
With only two weeks to go until the end of term and a mass move-out of Halls across Imperial, many of you will be clearing up and clearing out belongings accumulated over the last nine months. Plenty of people will be going through their stuff wondering what they were thinking when they bought a particularly interesting but useless item. How much of your stuff will you realistically take back with you over the summer?
An increasing amount of reusable items are being sent to landfill in the UK, even those in good condition which can be reused by others. In universities and in particular in halls of residence, a waste peak occurs during move-out at the end-of-term, when students want to get rid of anything they cannot or do not want to take home with them.
How to sensibly dispose of the waste generated from move-out weekend is a real issue for the accommodation teams who often need to clear rooms and prepare them for summer vacation guests on the same weekend as students move out.
This year, Imperial’s Accommodation Services and Facilities Management departments have joined forces with re-use organisation, CRISP, in an effort to minimise waste during moving-out weekend. CRISP provide tools for universities to facilitate a re-use service which allows students to donate any unwanted items for re-use as they move out of halls. Reusing unwanted goods is far better for the environment than recycling as it reduces the use of natural resources.
The scheme will be running for the last two weeks of term and each hall will have a designated space which will be used as a donation drop-point. Items will need to be sorted into different categories and then placed the bins provided. You can donate all sorts of things such as:
- clothes and shoes
- bedding and bed linen
- unopened non-perishable food items, e.g. canned goods
- kitchen items such as cutlery, plates, pots and pans
- electricals like lamps, computers and printers
- CDs, DVDs and books
- stationery – folders, pens, pencils etc
- furniture
- you can also donate any mixed paper for recycling
CRISP will collect all donations and redistribute to reuse outlets such as charity shops, hospitals, markets, councils, homeless shelters and many others. Last year CRISP worked with 38 university halls providing accommodation to 8962 students from over 14 different universities located in 10 inner London boroughs. Over the summer period in 2008, the project collected 23.98 tonnes of unwanted goods and materials for reuse – the equivalent of 0.69 tonnes per hall.
If you’ll be moving out of halls and have items to donate, you’ll find details of your hall’s drop-point around your hall or you can ask your hall supervisor or warden for more information.