Got stuff? UB ReUSE will take it

The academic year is winding down and that means thousands of UB students will be moving out of their dorms and off-campus apartments in the weeks ahead. And that means many students heading home for the summer won’t be able to bring back with them all the stuff they’ve accumulated over the past 10 months.

No worries. UB ReUSE will find a good home for it.

The student-run, campus-wide sustainability initiative is back for a second year. Blue collection bins donated by Modern Disposal were set up in various locations around the North Campus on Saturday and will remain until May 21. Bins are available on the main floors of North Campus residence halls; Ellicott tunnel at Fargo; dumpster areas at Porter, Red Jacket, Richmond, Spaulding and Wilkeson; inside Greiner Hall; and at Hadley Village Community Center. New signage will clearly indicate collection points.

“This is our second year so we’re a lot more organized this time around. We have more volunteers and more bins, so we’ll be able to collect a lot more,” says UB ReUSE student coordinator Megan Koury, who will graduate this month with a degree in environmental studies.

In addition to serving as a collection point, Greiner Hall also will be the UB ReUSE headquarters. The information desk on the main floor of Greiner will be staffed by student volunteers from noon to 3 p.m. weekdays. An evening shift from 5-8 p.m. will be added for the big move-out weekend May 19-21.

Due to resources, UB ReUSE is not yet available on the South Campus, but students, faculty and staff there can drop their items off at collections sites on the North Campus if they have the transportation to do so.

All are encouraged to drop off any items they no longer want or need. Acceptable items include textbooks, electronics, appliances, furniture, outdoor games and sports equipment, dorm/apartment accessories and lightly used cleaning supplies and toiletries. Clothing also will be accepted. However, UB ReUSE volunteers are asking the campus community to first consider donating clothing to one of the red Hearts for the Homeless bins around campus.

“If you think it can be reused, bring it down to us,” says Koury. “The more the merrier.”

Items collected will be safely stored over the summer. A team of student volunteers will test all electronics and appliances, and repair or refurbish any goods that need a little TLC. Items will be sold at a reduced price during Opening Weekend in late August.

The purpose of the program, though, is not to make money, Koury notes. “We’re not doing this for profit. We’re doing this to show people the diversion of waste. The money that we make from the sale in August is used to help keep the program going,” she says.

UB ReUSE began last spring as a program to encourage the campus community to recycle items that often get tossed into a dumpster and, eventually, a landfill instead of being reused.

For more information, visit the UB ReUSE Facebook page or email ubreuse@gmail.com.