Spring 2003 - Tiffani Barnum, Orianna Courtney, Molly Klarman, Haley McNabb, Meghan Zimmerman

As members of the dorm-junk recycling project (now known as LEAF: Leave Everything After Finals), we are considering the impact that Lewis and Clark students have on the local environment during the stress of finals week and the often hasty process of clearing out dorm rooms before leaving for the summer. Without much thought, students produce excess waste that could be used again by others in the coming school year primarily because they are in a hurry. LEAF will give the LC Community an opportunity to avoid throwing away useful items without having to put in much effort or time.
LEAF, which was an idea brought up and run by senior Nissa Hanson for her Environmental Studies class, is an effort to collect items such as furniture, lamps, posters, or any objects commonly thrown away at the end of the year. Since these items are often in good condition and needed year after year in the dorms, they can and should be reused within the Lewis and Clark community. We have coordinated our efforts and resale with SEED, the environmental action group on campus. In exchange for volunteered time at collection and resale times, all of our profits next year will be given to them in their effort to purchase green power. In this way, not only are the items being reused within the Lewis and Clark campus, but the proceeds also go to benefit environmental issues within our community.
Though we cannot predict how significant the amount of materials will be that we are collecting, it is important to raise the awareness with in the community of how easily they can contribute to a beneficial process such as reusing rather than producing more waste. As we raise awareness we also take into consideration how our project ties in to the environmental studies tripod. It unifies the three legs because it touches upon science and technology (methods of recycling and reusing), the social sciences (the effects of a community on its environment, redistributing junk to create funds for SEED), and the humanities leg (ethics, choosing to reuse instead of waste). Recognizing the importance of the individual legs and then seeing the way they connect allows us to see that without considering factors from each, the LEAF project would not be able to succeed.
Before any advertising or additional planning for the project could be done, there were certain logistics that we had to work out. Numerous storage facilities were contacted, as well as Lewis and Clark, as the items collected need to be held over the summer. In the end, we decided, both for ease and cost, to store all the items in Nissa Hanson’s garage.
Since in the beginning of our project we were unsure if a resale in the fall could actually take place, the Salvation Army was contacted. They were willing to take our stuff and come pick it up. Since the fall sale is set to take place, this is no longer necessary. At this point, any materials not sold in the fall will most likely be donated there.
Extensive discussion with the RA’s and RD’s took place in order to agree on a reasonable drop-off area for the items being collected. The RA’s and RD’s have been very supportive of our efforts, and granted us permission to have donation locations in all dorm main lounges.
A major component of our project was advertising. If the community members of the Lewis and Clark campus were unaware of efforts to collect items to resell and reuse, the project would not be successful and normal disposal of these items would continue as in past years. We had flyers printed up, courtesy of Residence Life. They were then distributed to all of the Resident Assistants in order for them to put them up their respective residence halls and all over campus. Since Tiffani is part of the Residence Life staff, she e-mailed all of the Resident Assistants and Resident Directors to inform them of the project. She also asked them to help by spreading the word and letting the students in their dorm complexes know about the project. We made several larger posters by hand. These went up in central locations, such as: Fields Dining Hall, Watzek Library, and dumpsters all across campus. Posters were also made to be put up in the collection areas, which have been in taped off, designated main lounges. Just to make sure all students had an opportunity to hear about the project, we sent an informative e-mail explaining the project to Jon Eldridge and asked him to add it to his weekly “Opportunities and Announcements” campus-wide e-mail. And finally, we added our project to the campus events on the school website.
In order to get the word out about the re-selling of what we’ve collected in the fall, we have been in contact with Sandi Bottemiller about getting flyers into the Enrollment Verification Packets that are handed out at the beginning of the semester. Also, we will make flyers to put up around campus in the fall, should we get the space needed for the sale.
The overall success of our project cannot be measured until the collection is over. However, we feel that any thing not thrown away is its own success. Our efforts to reuse and increase student’s awareness to the amount that they unnecessarily throw away, can only go to better the waste efficiency problems at Lewis and Clark.