UofI students recycle household items

These are just a few of the items collected by the Sustainable Move-Out Team.

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Story Published: Dec 18, 2007 at 11:01 PM PDT

Story Updated: Dec 18, 2007 at 11:01 PM PDT

By Matt Loveless

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MOSCOW - Rain or snow can't slow the University of Idaho's continued focus on sustainability. The newly formed Sustainable Campus Move-Out Team is turning trash on campus into treasure.

At the end of each semester, many pieces of furniture, appliances, even food, end up in the trash. This is the first year of a new program that's encouraging students to donate items instead of throwing them away when they go home for the holidays.

"We don't want to put garbage into the system again, so we are just trying to sort things," said Fafa Asiseh with the Move-Out Team. "And, the things that are still valuable we give back to the community."

This program got a lot of help for it's first try, including more than $10,000 from the university. Tuesday, in some inclement weather, the team began to tear down their tents which they had placed all over campus.

"If it's not convenient for them to put it anywhere, they just put it in the dumpster," said Asiseh. "So, we made it very convenient, very close to the residence halls. So, before you get to the dumpster, you see this thing, you just drop your reusable items so you don't have to take it. It's been good. We've dealt with all the residence halls and all the Greek houses. Hopefully next semester we can go to off campus residences to do the same."

Many of these things are given away, and some are sold in hopes to continue the program. They've already handed out many of the goods, including drawers, sleeping bags, phones - all a lot more than they expected.

"We were impressed," said Team Member Esther Ngumbi. "We didn't know that we were going to collect this much, but, everyone was amazed."

"Microwaves, printers," said Asiseh. "We've had about three TV's four printers, shoes."

"We got a lot of clothing," said Team Member Willow Falcon. "I would say 60 to 70 percent was clothing."

"We want to thank the University of Idaho for this Sustainability Center, for giving us this grant," said Ngumbi. "We truly appreciate it and everybody that donated items. We want to thank all the students."

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