University Housing encourages residential students to “Leave Green” by donating items when they move out of residence halls. Each year, tons of donated items are diverted from the landfill to local agencies that repurpose and reuse these items.

This May, about 166 tons were donated by students as they left campus during move-out. That number is up from 108 tons a year earlier. This year, the number of donated items amounted to 100 pounds per residential student.

This year, University Housing partnered with St. James Missionary Baptist Church and Oasis of Northwest Arkansas. Those agencies drove around the residential halls in early May and picked up the donated items from designated locations.

“The Leave Green program is a fantastic way to reduce waste and help our community. Giving a gently used item a second life essentially cuts its environmental footprint in half,” said Eric Boles, director of the Office for Sustainability.

University Housing opens an application each February for community agencies that want to participate in the Leave Green program in May.

This article was first published Tuesday, July 19, 2022 in University of Arkansas News (Newswire).