2016 2016: Recycle, resell, and redistribute

By Mike Mahoney

Reselling reusable items

The New2U Program collected an impressive array of reusable items last spring from students moving out of the residence halls—enough for a giant yard sale when school reopened in the fall.

“The students, especially first-year students, are the big winners,” said Katrina Martel ’16, who planned the New2U Program over the past two years. “They get useful items at 20 percent of the retail price, and the upperclassmen working the yard sale can advise them on what they will and won’t need.

“But really, everyone wins. The students get items they need for less money, New2U creates jobs for the student workers at the yard sale, the environment benefits from the tons that don’t end up in a landfill, and the University saves money from the reduced trash load.”

“We could not have run this project without Katrina,” said Jamie Jacquart, assistant director of the Office of Campus Sustainability and Residential Initiatives, the sponsoring body for New2U.

“She spent two years sweating all the details, from determining the optimal placement of collection bins, to measuring elevators to make sure the bins fit, to advertising the program, to scheduling 40 people to work in 14 buildings over 18 days. It was an enormous amount of work, and her meticulous planning put us on a firm foundation for this program to continue for many years.”

Everyone wins. The students get items they need for less money, New2U creates jobs for the student workers at the yard sale, the environment benefits from the tons that don’t end up in a landfill, and the University saves money from the reduced trash load.

Donating clothes and food

Katrina and her team sorted and organized the items they collected. They donated most of the clothing to Gifts to Give, a local charity, and donated the food to the UMassD Students Helping Students Food Pantry to distribute.

“But we held on to the winter jackets, and sold them to the International students,” said Katrina. “Many of them have never experienced winter, so they not only didn’t have proper clothing, they didn’t know what proper clothing looks like. So we were able to sell them coats that will serve them well. That was an unforeseen program benefit.”:

"A giant gorilla hand was the weirdest thing that anyone left in the collection bins,” said Katrina, shaking her head. Then she laughs. “But someone bought it!”

More information

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Office of Campus Sustainability & Residential Initiatives

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