SWAP!

Waste Reduction and Recycling has hosted several swap events to celebrate America Recycles Day in the fall, and in conjunction with Earth Day events in the spring.  A SWAP encourages students, faculty, staff and community members to drop off unwanted items from home and pick up items from others in an effort to create awareness, reduce consumption, reuse items, save money and build community.  At the SWAPS, we collected lots of clothing (mostly women’s), shoes, electronics, office supplies, movies, kitchen goods, music, outdoor gear and more. 

People were so surprised when they heard that everything’s FREE!  They came to swap, take, and donate stuff, or stopped by to talk with us about recycling.

In the fall event, folks could buy a ticket to Waste Land, the movie showing later that night about landfill “pickers” in Brazil.  Representatives from the town and county recycling programs Marsha Story and Lisa Doty answered many questions about their services, including tire recycling and composting bin availability.

Crystal Simmons, who is with the Office of Sustainability, and Jen Maxwell, ASU’s Resource Conservation Manager supported the events by providing advertising and transportation for many donations. 

Graduate student interns Katie Cavert and Michal Duffy (seen here donning some new free dresses) organized the events, including recruiting volunteers to post signs beforehand, organizing donations, and at the end of the day transporting the goods to local organizations.  These include the Hospitality House, Hebron Colony Ministry and Ram’s Rack thrift stores in Boone.  Winter coat donations were given to the annual "Give a Family a Coat" drive.

We would like to thank all those who participated in the SWAPS.  We hope you will join us for more SWAPS to clean out your closets and take away some free items!