Reusing

If you have it already, reuse it again!  If you do not need it anymore, give it to someone who can reuse it happily. After all, the trash of one person is the treasure of another. The Harvard Green Campus Initiative's Green Living Program (GLP) has run the following programs to encourage reusing:

Dishware Return

Partners

Harvard University Dining Services (HUDS)

Objective

To educate students about the importance of returning their china dishware to the dining hall. Close to $200,000 is lost by HUDS by having to replace stolen, lost, trashed or broken dishware.

Activities

Efforts have included the following:

  • educating students about the importance of returning dishware
  • trialing dishware return pilot programs in specific dorms
  • assessing why students do not bring dishware back to the dining hall
  • creating a “Thursday night” Dishware Return Ritual in specific dorms
  • publicizing dishware return during the Green Move-Out

Lessons Learned

Dishware efforts should occur throughout the entire year, especially before vacations and during the Green Move-Out.

Resources

Checklist

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Valentine's Day Toiletry Drive

Partners

Harvard Recycling and Cambridge YWCA Family Shelter 

Objective

To promote awareness about the importance of reuse and to collect new or barely used cosmetics and related items to donate to people who would appreciate the gift

Activities

Harvard Recycling handles the logistics and pickups across campus, with GLP reps coordinating donation bin locations and publicizing the collection to students. Donations can include cosmetics, shampoos, soaps and related items.

Successes

  • In February 2004, the GLP and Harvard Recycling collected about 75 pounds of donations to give to the YWCA Family Shelter.
  • In February 2005, the GLP and Harvard Recycling collected more than 700 pounds (a stunning amount!) of donations to give to the YWCA Family Shelter.

Resources

In the News

Checklist

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Green Move-Out

Partners

Harvard Recycling, Harvard Habitat for Humanity and house (dormitory) superintendents

Objective

To reduce the amount of waste generated during the move-out weeks at the end of the year

Activities

In collaboration with Harvard Recycling, reps publicize the Green Move-Out, reminding students to think about their move out early to prevent last minute throwaways. Reps publicize the location of bins for recycling and collecting clothing, furniture and other items.

Successes

The GLP and Harvard Recycling saw a 54-percent reduction in trash between 2002 (when neither the Green Move-Out or GLP existed but there was a volunteer Habitat for Humanity reuse/resell program) and 2004 (the second year of the GLP). The Harvard Habitat for Humanity “Stuff Sale” has generated more than $70,000 in revenue for Habitat from the materials collected during the Green Move-Out.

Lessons Learned

Because seniors stay on campus after the rest of the undergraduates, it is sometimes tougher to target them. A dormitory's rep may have already left campus or may be a senior who would rather participate in senior week activities than work. Consider hiring reps to stay for the additional time to make sure you have some students working to publicize the Green Move-Out to seniors. Seniors are also more likely to leave items behind because they will no longer be returning to campus and do not want to deal with moving all of their belongings home.

Reps will need to start work at least a week in advance to get permission for an official message to be sent out to all of the students in one dorm.

Reps can ask dining services for old boxes to give to students for them to use as storage or moving boxes. Also, at the beginning of the year, you can arrange for the collection of good-condition boxes, store them throughout the year, and sell them for a profit at the end of the year.

Be aware that satellite collection boxes in hallways, dining halls and other places may pop up but will likely lead to collection and fire hazard problems and may not permitted by the college or university. Ask reps to let you know if they become aware of unofficial collection sites in the dormitories. The GLP coordinator can contact the responsible groups to explain that their interests can be incorporated into the Green Move-Out effort, but they must use the designated collection bins, whose locations are known, accessible and checked daily to ensure punctual removal of all donations. If other groups want to collect donations themselves, options may include the following:

  • going room to room to collect items, with permission from the college or university
  • helping sort and process clothing and shoes at the collection warehouse
  • targeting buildings that have no clothing collection infrastructure

In the News

Resources from the Harvard Green Campus Initiative's GLP

Other Resources

  • Dump & Run is an organization dedicated to helping campus groups collect items for resale.

Checklist 

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ReStore

Objective

To promote campus-based reuse

Partners

Harvard Recycling and Harvard Green Campus Initiative

Successes

One of our former reps received a National Wildlife Federation Campus Ecology Fellowship to pursue the vision of creating a ReStore—a campus program that refurbishes Harvard’s outgoing computers so they can be donated. See the write-up in the NWF Campus Yearbook. The project also won two business competitions:

Media Coverage

Resources

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Clothing Swap

Objective

To encourage reuse through clothing exchanges

Activities

For her Challenge Team/Eco-Project entry for the Green Cup Competition, a student collected dresses to donate to girls in the local neighborhood who could not afford dresses for their school dances.

Resources

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