[greenyes] AP WIRE picks up story on moveout sales

[Lisa Heller <Lisa_Heller@no.address>]

The Associated Press State & Local Wire
The materials in the AP file were compiled by The Associated Press. 
These materials may not be republished without the express written 
consent of The Associated Press.

May 23, 2003, Friday, BC cycle
SECTION: State and Regional
LENGTH: 715 words
HEADLINE: Colleges, charities cash in on students' castoffs
BYLINE: By MIKE CRISSEY, Associated Press Writer
BODY:
Few students go through college without scavenging something, say a 
sofa from a sidewalk or a television from a trash bin. Now 
universities are joining them.
Hoping to stem the annual flood of collegiate castoffs, schools 
nationwide have started rummage sales for the tons of perfectly good 
possessions students throw out each semester.
Anything students can't or won't take with them as they move out 
often gets left behind: from well-worn furniture and stereo speakers 
to beer-can collections and food.
Sometimes they even leave behind computers and never-worn clothing.
"People just dump and run. They are so tired of being in school and 
just want to get out of there," said Gary Schwarzmueller, executive 
director of the Association of College and University Housing 
Officers International in Columbus, Ohio. "It is unbelievably hard to 
keep up."
Rather than leaving end-of-the semester scavenging - or for the 
brave, Dumpster diving - to students, colleges have joined them.
What's collected is sold during massive sales in hockey stadiums, 
basketball courts or large greens. The money schools rake in is 
usually donated to charity.
Massachusettes-based Dump & Run has helped organize the scavenger 
sales at 15 colleges this year in Canada, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, 
North Carolina, Ohio and Rhode Island.
The University of Richmond in Virginia and Bates College in Maine are 
also gearing up for sales this summer.
Arguably the largest collegiate yard sale is at Penn State 
University, where 14,000 students living in 48 dorms leave behind as 
much as 180 tons of trash.
In the second year of its sale, dubbed, Trash to Treasure, the school 
has collected 66 tons of unwanted items and 6 tons of food.
"You would not believe the volume of ramen noodles," a staple of 
collegiate diets, said Fraser Grigor, associate director of special 
projects at the university. "We collected an awful lot of ramen 
noodles and macaroni and cheese."
Other unbelievable finds include a mink jacket, shoes still stuffed 
with paper and a brand new pair of skis.
Grigor said the school had tried to get such a sale going years ago 
but was simply overwhelmed.
Last year, the school in State College, Pa., recruited a local United 
Way chapter and hundreds of volunteers. The school garnered $15,000 
for the United Way selling about 72 tons of dorm room detritus.
Officials hope they can double that at this year's sale, scheduled 
for Saturday beneath the university's Beaver Stadium. What isn't sold 
will be donated to the Salvation Army, Grigor said.
"There are people who could be using this stuff and we were paying to 
have it hauled to a landfill. From a social and ecological view it 
was just a waste," Grigor said.
At Bowdoin College in Maine, Keisha Payson, the school's recycling 
czar, and about five dozen people are busy filling the schools hockey 
arena with items from donation boxes for a sale June 7.
"Usually the Dumpsters would be filled up with stuff. I used to peek 
over the edge and say, 'I can't believe someone would throw that 
away,"' Payson said.
During Bowdoin's first collection last year, the school sold 35 tons 
of landfill-bound belongings, netting about $11,700 dollars.
Among the take from the 1,600 students on campus this year are a 
Santa suit and an inflatable wading pool. The school also gives away 
hundreds of bottles of half-used laundry detergent.
While they would seem to be as simple as a garage sale, small details 
can snarl university sales, warned Dump & Run founder Lisa Heller, 
who created the organization while an undergraduate at the University 
of Richmond.
Colleges have to time their collections for when most students move 
out and provide adequate places for students to leave usable goods, 
she said.
And then there's scavenging from the scavengers.
In the early years of Dump & Run, Heller was hampered by desperate 
students who emptied her donation boxes so they had a place for their 
own belongings. Students probably stole half of her boxes, Heller 
said, before she started mangling them, cutting away a flap and half 
the bottom.
On the Net:
Association of College and University Housing Officers International: 
http://www.acuho.ohio-state.edu
Dump & Run: http://www.dumpandrun.org/
GRAPHIC: AP Photos PX101-102
LOAD-DATE: May 24, 2003

--
Lisa K. Heller
Lisa_Heller@no.address

Director,Providence Urban Debate League
Founder, Dump & Run Inc.
Swearer Center for Public Service, Brown University
ph: (401) 863 9350
fax: (401) 863 3094

www.pudl.org
www.dumpandrun.org