Newsroom

Oregon State University on-campus students donated nearly 36,000 pounds of household goods and other discarded items during the annual Residence Hall Move-out Donation Drive this year.

The items are then donated to local non-profits, such as Linn-Benton Food Share and The Arc. The donation drive aims to reduce material from going to the landfill. Since 2010, the donation drive has diverted more than 100,000 pounds of items from the landfill.

This year, the drive far exceeded its 24,000-pound donation goal and reached the highest since weight tracking began in 2010. Donations of housewares, food, toiletries, school supplies, clothing, linens and shoes were 19 to 33 percent higher this year.

The largest increase came from wood, which totaled 7,864 pounds - a more than 600 percent increase from the previous year. The increase may be due to more residents using loft kits and donating the wood instead of taking it home or throwing it away.  

"We are unclear as to why donations increased as much as they did," said Andrea Norris, the marketing and development coordinator for Campus Recycling. "Given we do not have weight data for trash, we are unable to speculate if donations were higher because less was landfilled. Regardless, we are very happy to see such a large increase from last year."

Additional information on previous year's results, as well as a full list of the donation recipients, can be found at http://tiny.cc/donation-drive.

An off-campus drive was also held for the first time this year. Organized by OSU's Corvallis Community Relations, it was open to students living off-campus. During its inaugural run organizers collected furniture and other goods from 32 students.

The Res. Hall Move-Out Donation Drive is a collaboration between OSU Campus Recycling, Surplus Property and University Housing and Dining. Campus Recycling manages a comprehensive waste management system at Oregon State University that focuses on reducing, reusing and recycling with disposal as a last resort.